Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (later use Can./US) to kiss and fondle, esp. in a rough manner.

1697		Vanbrugh Relapse i, 2: Ah, you young, hot, lusty thief, let me muzzle you (Kisses him).
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 11/1: Muzzle – Kiss with no time off for air.
1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 83: My God do I have to be mauled and muzzled over by every man I go out with.
1938		Dly Atheneum in McGill Dly 19 Dec. 4: Hugging and kissing [...] Lollygagging, necking, pitching honey, smooching, tonsil swabbing, pawing, muzzling, flinging woo and rotten logging are other names applied to the same activity.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 85: We’ll sit here and muzzle.
1949		Gordon & Kanin Adam’s Rib 67: I saw him muzzlin’ that tall job.
1974		G. Radano Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 131: ‘So what if each week I don’t get to muzzle a new broad! I’m satisfied to go home and kiss my tired and sometimes nagging wife’ .

2. to fight, to thrash.

1820		Proc. Old Bailey 28 Oct. 635/1: I was assaulted by sixteen or twenty desperate characters, who cried out, ‘Tom, don't go; muzzle the b—g—rs, chiv ’em!’ (which means to cut.) I was knocked down, and my head beat in a most dreadful manner.
1833		Proc. Old Bailey 14 Feb. 222/2: Cook said, if I ever split, he would muzzle me (both the prisoners were present) - Pearce said if I did not go on with it, he would scrag me,.
1843		Proc. Old Bailey 3 Apr. 987: Bassett said if he did not treat them they would muzzle him, and his Moll too.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) Feb. 4/3: If you collar me, I’m blow’d if I don’t muzzle you.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 16/1: It is often said in admiration of such a man that ‘he could muzzle half a dozen bobbies before breakfast’.
1875		Proc. Old Bailey 22 Nov. 112: If I had been one of them I should have turned round and muzzled him.

3. to hit in the face.

1827		Proc. Old Bailey 5 Apr. 342/2-343/1: He fought very hard, and struck me in the jaw [...] he said, ‘I will muzzle you’.
1844		Proc. Old Bailey 9 Aug. 482: He said, if I attempted to come on the other side of the bar, to put him out, he would muzzle me, and wring my nose out of my face.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 14 Feb. 1/2: Suddenly hitting up, [he] ‘muzzled’ his man.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 38/1: Not his lovely Polly, who ‘muzzled’ him in the Artichoke.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Oct. n.p.: O’Connor [...] was brought before the Judge under a charge [...] of ‘muzzling’ [...] says he, ‘I’ll blacken the white of yer eye’.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 67: Now, look here, if you rend my clothes I’ll muzzle you.

4. to throttle, to garrotte.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1915		Drew & Evans Grafter (1922) 84: ‘[H]e muzzled me. I suppose he thought I was silvery, He’s a mug garrotter, or he wouldn’t have picked me out’.

5. (orig. US) to obtain, to take, to steal.

1841		Man o’ War 154: Dick [...] muzzles two belonging to some of the cooks [HDAS].
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer Ch. ix: I thought, Sir, as you’d like a snack, so I muzzled enough grub for two.

6. to drink heavily [dial. muzzle, to drink to excess].

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.