nuzzle

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnʌzl̩/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnʌz(ə)l/, [ˈnʌzɫ̩]
• Rhymes: -ʌzəl
• Hyphenation: nuz‧zle

The verb is derived from Middle English noselen (“to bend down”);[1] further etymology uncertain, possibly:

• a back-formation from noseling, noselyng (“on the back, supine; with the face downward, prone”, adverb),[2] from nose (“nose”)[3] (from Old English nosu, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s (“nose”)) + -ling, -lyng (suffix forming adverbs denoting direction, manner, or position);[4] or
• from nose (see above) + -el, -elen (diminutive or frequentative suffix)[5][6][7] (in which case the English word is, by surface analysis, nose +‎ -le (frequentative suffix)).

Sense 2.3 (“to settle or lie comfortably and snugly”) is possibly influenced by nestle or nursle (frequentative of nurse).[8]

The noun is derived from the verb.[9]

nuzzle (third-person singular simple present nuzzles, present participle nuzzling, simple past and past participle nuzzled)

1. (transitive)
   1. To push or thrust (the nose or snout, face or muzzle, or head, or an object) against or into something.
      • 1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, “The Vnfortunate Traueller”, in The Vnfortvnate Traveller. Or, The Life of Iacke Wilton, London: […] T. Scarlet for C[uthbert] Burby, […], →OCLC:

        [T]he Dogge nuſling his noſe vnder the necke of the Deare, the Wolfe glad to let the Lambe lye vpon hym to kepe him warme, the Lyon ſuffering the Aſſe to caſt hys legge ouer him: preferring one honeſt vnmannerly friende, before a number of croutching picke-thankes.

      • 1611, [Anthony] Stafford, Staffords Niobe: Or His Age of Teares. The First Part. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [for Matthew Lownes], →OCLC, pages 199–200:

        Shee [Wisdom] nuzzleth her ſelfe in his [the scholar's] boſom, cheriſheth his ſoule, lifts-vp his lovve-groueling thoghts as high as Heauen: […]

   2. To rub or touch (someone or something) with the nose, face, etc., or an object.

      The horse nuzzled its foal’s head gently to wake him up.

      She nuzzled her boyfriend in the cinema.

      • 2010, Jennifer Egan, “Selling the General”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, part B:

        Within a couple of hours, pictures of General B nuzzling Kitty Jackson were being posted and traded on the Web.

   3. Chiefly of an animal: to dig (something, especially food) out of the ground using the nose or snout; to root.
2. (intransitive)
   1. Often followed by in or into: to press or push the nose or snout, mouth, face, etc., against or into someone or something; to touch someone or something with the nose or snout, etc.

      The bird nuzzled up to the wires of the cage.

      • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC; 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], 1594, →OCLC, [verse 186], signature [Giv], recto, lines [1111–1116]:

        Tis true, tis true, thus vvas Adonis ſlaine, / He ran vpon the Boare vvith his ſharpe ſpeare, / VVho vvould not vvhet his teeth at him againe, / But by a kiſſe thought to perſvvade him there. / And nouſling in his flanke the louing ſvvine, / Sheath'd vnavvare his tuske in his ſoft groine.

      • 1603, Plutarch, “Of the Naturall Love or Kindnes of Parents to Their Children”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 220:

        [N]ature hath ſo placed a dug, that as it endeth one vvay in a ſpongeous kinde of fleſh full of ſmall pipes, and made of purpoſe to tranſmit the milke, and let it diſtill gently by many little pores and ſecret paſſages, ſo it yeeldeth a nipple in maner of a faucet, very fit and ready for the little babes mouth, about vvhich to nuzzle and nudgell vvith it[s] prety lips it taketh pleaſure, and loveth to be tugging and lugging of it; […]

      • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Conducted by a Houyhnhnm to His House. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page [177]:

        [T]he Lineaments of the Countenance are diſtorted by the Natives […] carrying them [infants] on their backs, nuzzling vvith their Face againſt the Mother's Shoulders.

      • 1738 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Epilogue to the Satires, in Two Dialogues. Dialogue II.”, in The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume IV, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton […], published 1751, →OCLC, page 256, lines 171–179:

        Let Courtly VVits to VVits afford ſupply, / As Hog to Hog in huts of VVeſtphaly; / If one, thro' Nature's Bounty or his Lord's, / Has vvhat the frugal, dirty ſoil affords, / From him the next receives it, thick or thin, / As pure a meſs almoſt as it came in; / The bleſſed benefit, not there confin'd, / Drops to the third, vvho nuzzles cloſe behind; / From tail to mouth, they feed and they carouſe: / The laſt full fairly gives it to the Houſe.

      • 1855, Charles Kingsley, “How They Took the Pearls at Margarita”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume II, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 264:

        Help, all good fellows! See you not that I am a dead man? They [sharks] are nuzzling already at my toes!

      • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 80:

        The red mare ran to the Colonel's son, and nuzzled against his breast; […]

      • 1910 November – 1911 August, Frances Hodgson Burnett, “‘It Has Come!’”, in The Secret Garden, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, published 1911, →OCLC, page 252:

        He walked over to Colin's sofa and put the new-born lamb quietly on his lap, and immediately the little creature turned to the warm velvet dressing-gown and began to nuzzle and nuzzle into its folds and butt its tight-curled head with soft impatience against his side.

   2. Chiefly of an animal: to push the nose or snout into the ground to dig for something, especially food; to root, to rootle.
      • 1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “The Difference betweene the Male, and the Female”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 156:

        The male pigges following the damme, doe commonly ſcatter further abroade than the females doe, and will nouzle and turne vp the ground tenne or twelue paces further off from their dãmes than yͤ females do, […]

      • 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature D3, verso:

        For either they be puffed vp vvith pride, / Or fraught vvith enuie that their galls do ſvvell, / Or they their dayes to ydleneſſe diuide, / Or drovvnded lie in pleaſures vvaſtefull vvell, / In vvhich like Moldvvarps [i.e., moles] nouſling ſtill they lurke, / Vnmyndfull of chiefe parts of manlineſſe, / And do themſelues for vvant of other vvorke, / Vaine votaries of laeſie loue profeſſe, […]

      • 1606, Charles Steuens [i.e., Charles Estienne], John Liebault [i.e., Jean Liébault], “[The Hunting of the Wilde Bore.] The Best Time to Hunt the Wilde Bore, and the Marks of a Good Wilde Bore.”, in Richard Surflet, transl., Maison Rustique, or The Countrey Farme: […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Iohn Norton and Iohn Bill, →OCLC, book VII (The Warren), page 854:

        [T]he vvilde bore maketh deeper rootings, becauſe he hath a longer head, and vvhen he commeth in fieldes that are ſovven, hee vvillingly follovveth one furrovve, nuſling al along the ridge vntill he come to the end of it: […]

      • 1733, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], Alexander Pope, compiler, “Law is a Bottomless Pit. Or, The History of John Bull. […]. The Second Part. Chapter VII. Of the Hard Shifts Mrs. Bull was Put to, to Preserve the Manor of Bullock’s-Hatch; with Sir Roger’s Method to Keep off Importunate Duns.”, in Miscellanies, 2nd edition, volume II, London: […] Benjamin Motte, […], →OCLC, page 94:

        It vvould have done your Heart good to have ſeen him charge through an Army of Lavvyers, Attornies, Clerks, and Tradeſmen; ſometimes vvith Svvord in Hand, at other Times nuzzling like an Eel in the Mud.

      • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 347:

        A grand imagination found in this flight of commerce ſomething to captivate. It vvas vvherevvithal to dazzle the eye of an eagle. It vvas not made to entice the ſmell of a mole, nuzzling and burying himſelf in his mother earth, as yours is.

      • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], “XVI. Comparing of Notes.”, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume III, Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 237:

        Davie all this while lay with his nose almost in the fire, nuzzling among the ashes, kicking his heels, mumbling to himself, and turning the eggs as they lay in the hot embers, […]

        A figurative use.

      • 1886 May, Thomas Hardy, chapter V, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 61:

        The younger guests were talking and eating with animation; their elders were searching for tit-bits, and sniffing and grunting over their plates like sows nuzzling for acorns.

   3. Followed by down: to settle or lie comfortably and snugly in a bed, nest, etc.; to nestle.

      Synonym: snuzzle

      • 1606, Barnabe Barnes, “The First Booke of Offices”, in Foure Bookes of Offices: Enabling Privat Persons for the Speciall Seruice of All Good Princes and Policies, London: […] [Adam Islip] at the charges of George Bishop, T[homas] Adams, and C[uthbert] Burbie, →OCLC, page 16:

        Intemperance therefore according to Cicero, is ſuch a kind of obedience vnto luſts, meerely repugnant to the right mind, and vnto all preſcription of reaſon, that the priuate deſires can neither be gouerned nor contained in any moderation; and thereof are tvvo parts: one vvhich exceſſiuely nuzzleth it ſelfe in delicacie, and another vvhich doth not.

      • 1953 December, Hortense Calisher, “A Christmas Carillon: A Story”, in John Fischer, editor, Harper’s Magazine, volume 207, number 1243, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 38, column 1:

        Down at the corner, carols bugled steamily from a mission soup-kitchen. There's no escape from it, he thought. Turn on the radio, and its alleluia licks you with tremolo tongue. In every store window flameth housegown, nuzzleth slipper.

        A deliberate archaism.

   4. Chiefly followed by up or with: to press affectionately against someone or something; to nestle, to snuggle.
   5. (figurative) To come into close contact with someone or something.
      • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 706:

        It was nearly all downhill into Shrewsbury, with two intermediate stops, and a grand sequence of long curves around which Soult nuzzled her way with a quick side-to-side action.

   6. (obsolete, rare) To feel or probe with the fingers.

• nosel, nousel, nousle, nowsle, nusle (all obsolete)

• nuzzler
• nuzzling (adjective, noun)
• snuzzle

• nursle

nuzzle (plural nuzzles)

1. An act of nuzzling (all verb senses).

Origin uncertain; appears to have a separate origin from nuzzle (etymology 1) due to the different meanings, but probably influenced by that word.[10]

nuzzle (third-person singular simple present nuzzles, present participle nuzzling, simple past and past participle nuzzled) (transitive, also reflexive, obsolete)

1. Often followed by up or with: to nurture or train (oneself or someone) to act a certain way, have certain beliefs, etc.
   1. (falconry, hunting) To train (a dog or hawk) to attack prey.
2. (generally) Chiefly followed by up: to bring up (someone); to foster, to rear; also, to educate (someone); to train.
   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

     The people had been nuzzled in idolatry.

3. (literary) To care for (someone) affectionately; to hold dear (someone); to cherish, to nurse; also, to provide (someone or something) a comfortable and snug place to settle or lie (compare etymology 1, verb sense 2.3).

• A[bram] Smythe Palmer (1882) “Nuzzle, Nosell”, in Folk-etymology, a Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions or Words Perverted in Form or Meaning, by False Derivation or Mistaken Analogy, London: George Bell and Sons, […], →OCLC, page 261.
• Joseph Wright, editor (1903), “NUZZLE, v.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 313–314.
• “knuse, v., n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.