fuzzle

English

Etymology

Compare Low German fuseln (“to drink common liquor”), from fusel (“bad liquor”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʌzəl/

Verb

fuzzle (third-person singular simple present fuzzles, present participle fuzzling, simple past and past participle fuzzled)

1. (archaic, transitive) To make drunk or confused.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     if the spirits of the brain be fuzzled or misaffected by such means at such a time, their children will be fuzzled in the brain

   • 1903, Israel Zangwill, The Grey Wig, The Serio-comic Governess:

     Through her tears she saw him counting—on his entry into Paradise—the children who had preceded him, and more than ever fuzzled by the flapping of their wings.

References

• “fuzzle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.