nuzzle

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

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈnʌz(ə)l/,
• 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 Vnfortunate Traueller. Or, The Life of Iacke Wilton, London: T. Scarlet for C 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 kéepe 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 , →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: […]

      • 1693, [Thomas] d’Urfey, The Richmond Heiress: Or, A Woman Once in the Right. A Comedy, , London: Samuel Briscoe, , →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 14:

        Then at the Play-Houſe ye ogle the Boxes, and dop and bovv to thoſe you do not knovv, as vvell as thoſe you do. […] You nuzzle your Noſes into their Hoods and Commodes, […]

      • a. 1733, [John] Gay, The Distress’d Wife. A Comedy, London: Thomas Astley , published 1743, →OCLC, Act II, scene viii, page 32:

        Miſs Sprightly and you are alvvays nuzling your Heads together.

      • 1854 (indicated as 1855), M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “We Return to Rosalba”, in The Rose and the Ring; or, The History of Prince Giglio and Prince Bulbo. , London: Smith, Elder, and Co., , →OCLC, page 100:

        When the lions came to Rosalba, instead of devouring her with their great teeth, it was with kisses they gobbled her up! They licked her pretty feet, they nuzzled their noses in her lap, they moo'd, they seemed to say, "Dear, dear sister, don't you recollect your brothers in the forest?" And she put her pretty white arms round their tawny necks, and kissed them.

   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 girlfriend in the cinema.

      • 1891 January, Rudyard Kipling, chapter II, in The Light that Failed, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published March 1891, →OCLC, page 19:

        Some twenty whale-boats were nuzzling a sand-bank which was dotted with English soldiery of half a dozen corps, bathing or washing their clothes.

      • 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.

      • 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: Richard Field, , →OCLC, , signature , recto, lines :

        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 the 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. , volume II, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page :

        [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 and P 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.

      • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter X, in Animal Farm , London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC, page 104:

        Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was Clover.

   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 C 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 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 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.

   4. 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: at the charges of George Bishop, T Adams, and C 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.

      • 1702, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto XX. The Mortification. Stanza 210.”, in Charles Beaumont, editor, Psyche, or Love’s Mystery, , 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University-Press, for Tho Bennet, , →OCLC, page 309, column 1:

        [T]h' abſtruſeſt things / VVhich in the Mind's dark Temper nuzling lie, / By you expoſed are to every eye.

      • 1878 June, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Man Himself—His House, and Tools”, in The Gamekeeper at Home: Sketches of Natural History and Rural Life, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., , →OCLC, page 2:

        [T]he ferret is a shivery creature, and likes nothing so well as to nozzle down in a coat-pocket with a little hay.

      • 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.

   5. Chiefly followed by up or with: to press affectionately against someone or something; to nestle, to snuggle.
      • 1637, Tho[mas] Heywood, “Iupiter and Ganimede”, in Pleasant Dialogues and Dramma’s, Selected out of Lucian, Erasmus, Textor, Ovid, &c. , London: R. O for R. H, and are to be sold by Thomas Slater , →OCLC, page 99:

        [W]ill your reſt / ſeme ſvveeter, if I nuzzle on your breſt?

      • 1894 January–July, Hall Caine, chapter XIV, in The Manxman, London: William Heinemann, published 3 August 1894 (1 September 1894 printing), →OCLC, part IV (Man and Wife), page 255:

        Making some inarticulate whimper of communication, it [the baby] nuzzled up to her, its eyes closed, but its head working against her bosom with the instinct of suckling, though it had never sucked.

   6. (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.

   7. (obsolete, rare) To feel or probe with the fingers.
      • 1859, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast-table; with The Story of Iris, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1860, →OCLC, page 248:

        The Professor […] [f]eels thorax and arm, and nuzzles round among muscles as those horrid old women poke their fingers into the salt-meat on the provision-stalls at the Quincy Market.

• 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.
   • 1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “The .IIIJ. Senses of yͤ Scripture”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man , : , →OCLC, folio cxlj, verso:

     Yf any man therfore vſe the ſcripture to drawe the [thee] from Chriſte and to noſell the [thee] in any thinge ſave in Chriſte / the ſame is a falſe prophete.

   • 1532, Thomas More, “The Confutacion of Tyndale’s Aunswere . The Maner and Order of Our Eleccion.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, , London: Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, page 587, columns 1–2:

     [S]ome turne agayne by grace frõ their deadly hereſies into yͤ life of faith, ⁊ ſome be ſo ſore nowſeled in the falſe hereſies, ⁊ in their obſtinate frowardneſſe take ſuch a deueliſhe delight, yͭ finally thei die therin as did Baifield, Bainã, ⁊ Tewkeſbury.

   • 1533, Thomas Elyot, “The Fourthe Dialogue”, in Of that Knowlage, whiche Maketh a Wise Man. A Disputacion Platonike, London: Thomas Berthelet, published p. 1548? (indicated as 1534), →OCLC, signatures Lii, recto – Lii, verso:

     [T]he [thee] Ariſtippus, who beyng longe noſilled in worldly pleaſures, wilt not admitte, that any thynge, whiche is therunto contrarie, maie be expedient or neceſſarie vnto a man, that is vertuous, and lacketh ſuch vice, whiche requireth ſharpe admonicion: […]

   • 1549 February 10 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1548), Erasmus, “The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Gospell of Sainct John. The .xi. Chapter.”, in Nicolas Udall [i.e., Nicholas Udall], transl., The First Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testamente, London: Edwarde Whitchurche, →OCLC, folio lxxix, recto:

     [Jesus] dyd grone agayne, and faced euill with hymſelfe, exemplyfying in hymſelfe verely the thyng whiche ought to be exhibite in vs if we will eftſones repente vs of the euilles and returne from the ſame, wherin we haue long tyme nuſſeled our ſelues.

   • a. 1601 (date written), Richard Hooker, The Answere of Mr. Richard Hooker to a Supplication Preferred by Mr Walter Travers to the H.H. Lords of the Privie Counsell, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Ioseph Barnes, and are to be sold by John Barnes , published 1612, →OCLC, paragraph 26, page 31:

     I take no ioy in ſtriving, I haue not beene nozled or trained vp in it.

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Causes of Religious Melancholy. ”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, , Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 4, member 1, subsection 2, page 734:

     Novv vvhen they are throughly poſſeſſed vvith blind zeale, and nuſled vvith ſuperſtition, he hath many other baites to inueagle & infatuate them farther yet, […]

   • 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, 2nd book, page 63:

     Speedy and vehement were the Reformations of all the good Kings of Juda, though the people had beene nuzzl'd in Idolatry never so long before; […]

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, “Observations on the Kings Injunctions”, in The Church-history of Britain; , London: Iohn Williams , →OCLC, book VII, page :

     Thus our vviſe Reformers reflected diſcreetly on the infirmities of people, long nouzled in ignorance and ſuperſtition, and incapable of a ſudden and perfect alteration.

   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.
   • 1600, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie , London: Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 123:

     This onely they beſought at their hands, and admoniſhed them of, by vvay of a proviſo, they they vvould take order for the ſafetie and ſecuritie of their perſons: and not by ſheading their bloud, to fleſh the Commons, and to nuzzle them up, and acquaint them vvith exerciſing crueltie upon the Nobles and Senatours.

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).
   • 1573, George Gascoigne, “Three Sonets in Sequence, Written vppon this Occasion”, in A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres Bounde up in One Small Poesie. , London: [Henry Bynneman and Henry Middleton for] Richarde Smith, →OCLC, page 337:

     For if Birhena could haue held him backe, / From Venus Court where he now nouſled was, / His luſtie limbes had neuer found the lacke / Of manly ſhape: […]

   • 1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], “The Prologue”, in Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. , London: for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde  , published 1602, →OCLC, signature A2, recto:

     [F]rom his birth, being hugged in the armes, / And nuzzled tvvixt the breaſtes of happineſſe

   • 1891, Hall Caine, “Of Israel’s Home-coming”, in The Scapegoat: A Romance , volume I, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 226:

     Oh, fool of fools, why had he been dallying with dreams—billing and cooing with his own fancies—fondling and nuzzling and coddling them?

• 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: , volume IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] 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 Grant and D D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.