Other forms: nuzzling, nuzzles
To nuzzle is to rub gently with the nose. The horse nuzzled him, nuzzle into her neck, nuzzled the blanket.
It is affectionate and it belongs to animals first — horses, dogs and cats all do it, and it is a greeting as much as a search for food. Of people it is tender. Note nose, from which it plainly comes; and that the further origin of the word is uncertain.
1verbnuzzleTo rub gently with the nose.
“The young foal nuzzled its mother's neck in the spring sunshine.”
nuzzle is a gentle rubbing.
Middle English noselen probably comes from nose. Its further origin is uncertain.
Proto-Indo-European
*néh₂s
Middle English
noselen — to bend down
English, today
nuzzle
The verb is derived from Middle English noselen (“to bend down”); further etymology uncertain, possibly:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire