# camel's nose

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/camels-nose
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

A situation where the permitting of some small act will lead to a larger undesirable act or circumstance.

## Examples

- Don't let them start, or it will be the camel's nose.
- I worry that this small budget increase is just the camel's nose.
- He refuses to sign the contract because he fears the camel's nose.
- If we allow this small change now, we risk the camel's nose leading to total policy failure later.
- Giving the employees a half-day today feels like the camel's nose because they might expect every Friday afternoon off from now on.
- The neighbors think letting you park one car on the grass is the camel's nose for turning the yard into a parking lot.
- The committee feared that approving this minor exception would serve as the camel's nose, inevitably inviting a flood of far more radical and damaging requests.

## Origin

The root phrase is usually claimed to be a saying of Arabs or Middle Eastern cultures, roughly as follows: : Do not allow a camel to put his nose under the edge of your tent, for soon you will have a camel in your tent.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.