Category:Muzzle

Muz"zle, n. Etym: [OE. mosel, OF. musel, F. museau muzzle or snout, LL. musellus, fr. musus, morsus. See Muse, v. i., and cf. Morsel.]

1. The projecting mouth and nose of a quadruped, as of a horse; a snout.

2. The mouth of a thing; the end for entrance or discharge; as, the muzzle of a gun.

3. A fastening or covering (as a band or cage) for the mouth of an animal, to prevent eating or vicious biting. With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound Dryden. Muzzle sight. (Gun.) See Dispart, n., 2.

muzzle Muz"zle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Muzzled; p. pr. & vb. n. Muzzling.] Etym: [F. museler.]

1. To bind the mouth of; to fasten the mouth of, so as to prevent biting or eating; hence, figuratively, to bind; to sheathe; to restrain from speech or action. "My dagger muzzled." Shak. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Deut. xxv. 4.

2. To fondle with the closed mouth. [Obs.] L'Estrange.

muzzle Muz"zle, v. i.

Defn: To bring the mouth or muzzle near. The bear muzzles and smels to him. L'Estrange.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Muzzle - Grain in the East is usually thrashed by the sheaves being spread out on a floor, over which oxen and cattle are driven to and fro, till the grain is trodden out. Moses ordained that the ox was not to be muzzled while thrashing. It was to be allowed to eat both the grain and the straw (Deuteronomy 25:4). (See AGRICULTURE.)