English

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Etymology

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Uncertain.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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muzz (third-person singular simple present muzzes, present participle muzzing, simple past and past participle muzzed)

  1. (slang, now rare) To study intently; to pore over. [from 18th c.]
    • 1903, Francis Markham with Sir Clements Robert Markham, “A Westminster Glossary”, in Recollections of a town boy at Westminster, 1849–1855, page 230:
      MUZZ: To be studious. ‘I was muzzing up my Virgil.’
  2. (slang, obsolete) To hang around aimlessly; to loiter. [18th c.]
    • 1779, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 105:
      ‘If You but knew, cried I, to whom I am going to Night! and who I shall see to Night! – you would not dare keep me muzzing here!’
  3. (slang) To make muzzy or hazy; to confuse. [from 18th c.]