muzzle
/ˈmʌzəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.31 in modern English
26
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The mouth or the end for entrance or discharge of a gun, pistol etc., that the bullet emerges from.
noun
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.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, […]"
- "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn."
- "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."
- "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; […]"
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
muzzle-bag
muzzle blast
muzzle booster
muzzle brake
muzzle compensator
muzzle energy
muzzle flash
muzzle-loader