Other forms: muzzles, muzzled
A muzzle is the front of an animal's face — the nose and mouth taken together. The soft grey end of a horse's face that comes into your palm looking for a mint; the wet black tip of a dog's.
The same word names the guard strapped over that face to stop a dog biting: muzzles required on this platform. From there comes the verb, and it has gone political — to muzzle the press is to stop it speaking, whatever it has to say. On a gun, the muzzle is the open end the bullet leaves from, which is why muzzle velocity means the speed it leaves at. Careful with nuzzle, a completely different word: a horse nuzzles you with its muzzle.
1nounhorseThe projecting nose and mouth of an animal such as a dog, horse or fox.~16%
“The old dog rested his muzzle on her knee and closed his eyes.”
2nounmuzzleA strap or wire cage fitted over an animal's mouth to stop it biting.~2%
“He keeps a muzzle in the car for trips to the vet.”
3verbputTo put a muzzle on an animal.~2%
“Dogs must be muzzled on the ferry.”
4verborganisationTo stop a person or organisation from speaking freely.~2%
“The new rules muzzle anyone who wants to raise a complaint in public.”
5nounopenThe open end of the barrel of a gun.~78%
“Smoke was still curling from the muzzle.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 6 sentences found in the wild and placed 6 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Muzzle came through Old French musel from Latin mūsus, meaning snout — a word Latin may have shaped from the look of pushed-out lips, or from the sound of an animal bellowing. Middle English had it as mosel. The face came first and the strap was named after the part of the face it covers. The French word is still there today as museau.
Latin
mūsus — snout
Old French
musel
Middle English
mosel
English, today
muzzle
From earlier muzle, musle, mousle, mussel, mozell, from Middle English mosel, from Old French musel, museau, muzeau (modern French museau), from Latin mūsus (“snout”), probably imitative of the sound of the shape of protruded lips and/or influenced by Latin mūgīre (“to moo, bellow”). a doublet of museau. Displaced native kevel from cæfl, see cavel.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA