muzzle
noun
- device that is placed over the snout of an animal
verb
- make unable to speak
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmʌzəl/
noun
Etymology: From earlier muzle, musle, mousle, mussel, mozell, from Middle English mosel, from Old French musel, museau, muzeau (modern French museau), from Late Latin mūsus (“snout”), probably expressive of the shape of protruded lips and/or influenced by Latin mūgīre (“to moo, bellow”). Doublet of museau. Displaced native Middle English kevel from Old English cæfl (“gag, bit, muzzle”), see English cavel.
- The protruding part of an animal's head which includes the nose, mouth and jaws.
“The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, […]”
- A person's mouth.
- A device used to prevent an animal from biting or eating, which is worn on its snout.
- The mouth or the end for entrance or discharge of a gun, pistol etc., that the bullet emerges from.
- A piece of the forward end of the plow-beam by which the traces are attached.
- An openwork covering for the nose, used for the defense of the horse, and forming part of the bards in the 15th and 16th centuries.
verb
Etymology: From earlier muzle, musle, mousle, mussel, mozell, from Middle English mosel, from Old French musel, museau, muzeau (modern French museau), from Late Latin mūsus (“snout”), probably expressive of the shape of protruded lips and/or influenced by Latin mūgīre (“to moo, bellow”). Doublet of museau. Displaced native Middle English kevel from Old English cæfl (“gag, bit, muzzle”), see English cavel.
- To bind or confine an animal's mouth by putting a muzzle, as to prevent it from eating or biting.
“Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.”
- To restrain (from speaking, expressing opinion or acting); to gag; to silence; to censor.
“Those who want to muzzle everyone else are likely nothing less than pseudovirtuous.”
“Man is brow-beaten, leashed, muzzled, masked, and lashed by boards and councils, by leagues and societies, by church and state.”
- To veil, mask, muffle.
- To fondle with the closed mouth; to nuzzle.
“Venus her self would sit Muzzling and Gazing them in the Eyes”
“And now, while they are climbing the pole in another part of the field, and muzzling in a flour-tub in another, the old farmer […] announces to all whom it may concern that a half-sovereign in money will be forthcoming to the old gamester who breaks most heads; […]”
- To bring the muzzle or mouth near.
“The Bear comes directly up to him, Muzzles and Smells to him.”