muffle
/mʌfl̩/
muffle noun: anything that mutes or deadens sound.
Noun
muffle (plural muffles)
- Anything that mutes or deadens sound.
- A warm piece of clothing for the hands.
- A boxing glove.
- N.B.—Mr Broughton proposes, with proper assistance, to open an academy at his house in the Haymarket, for the instruction of those who are willing to be initiated in the mystery of boxing: […] muffles are provided, that will effectually secure them from the inconveniency of black eyes, broken jaws...1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
- A kiln or furnace, often electric, with no direct flames (a muffle furnace)
- The bare end of the nose between the nostrils, especially in ruminants.
- A machine with two pulleys to hoist load by spinning wheels, polyspast, block and tackle.
- Between the two pulleys c, c¹, and around the shaft a, is a muffle d, which receives at both ends the rounded heads of three, four, five, or more screws f, which act as levers. The levers are formed of a right and lefthanded screw, f, and f¹. The two screws are united together by means of a nut g...1858, Newton's London Journal of Arts and Sciences. New Series, volume 7, page 26
Verb
muffle (third-person singular simple present muffles, present participle muffling, simple past and past participle muffled)
- To wrap (a person, face etc.) in fabric or another covering, for warmth or protection; often with up.
- The face lies muffled up within the garment.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- He muffled with a cloud his mournful eyes.1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- To wrap up or cover (a source of noise) in order to deaden the sound.
- to muffle the strings of a drum, or that part of an oar which rests in the rowlock
- I intend to muffle the sweeps and row the schooner up to the head of the creek there, from which point we can command the pile of sandal-wood with our gun.1858, R M Ballantyne, The Coral Island
- To mute or deaden (a sound etc.).
- The singer's voice was muffled by the thick walls, yet Tyrion knew the verse.1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 397
- To speak indistinctly, or without clear articulation.
- To prevent seeing, or hearing, or speaking, by wraps bound about the head; to blindfold; to deafen.
muffle meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
muffle in Tamil
- மூடுகருவி
muffle in Bengali
- শব্দ চাপা দেওয়া, জড়ানো, অস্পষ্ট করা
muffle in Malayalam
- പൊതിയുക, അവ്യക്തമായി പറയുക, കൈയുറ
muffle in Kannada
- ಸುಂದು, ಮುಚ್ಚು, ಬಾಯಿ ಮುಚ್ಚಿಸು, ಉಲಿಗುಂದಿಸು
Examples of muffle in a sentence
- A muffled curse escaped my lips.
- Eventually, their heavy, muffled footsteps indicated that they were moving off down another passage.
- Used as a contact and alarm call, the muffled raab is like a muttered, husky quack.
Forms of muffle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | muffles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | muffles |
| present participle | muffling |
| past participle | muffled |
| past | muffled |
Origin of muffle
From Middle English muflen (“to muffle”), aphetic alteration of Anglo-Norman amoufler, from Old French enmoufler (“to wrap up, muffle”), from moufle (“mitten”), from Medieval Latin muffula (“a muff”), of Germanic origin (—first recorded in the Capitulary of Aachen in 817 C.E.), from Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) from *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) (from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”)) + *vël (“skin, hide”) (from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”). Alternate etymology traces the Medieval Latin word to Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”), English mulch) + *fell (“hide, skin”).
Words formed from muffle
Phrases with muffle
Words that rhyme with muffle
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about muffle
- What does muffle mean?
- Muffle means anything that mutes or deadens sound.
- What is muffle in Tamil?
- Muffle in Tamil is மூடுகருவி. See Muffle meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is muffle?
- Muffle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce muffle?
- Muffle is pronounced /mʌfl̩/.
- What is the plural of muffle?
- The plural of muffle is muffles.
Words near muffle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: muffle (page history and authors); muffle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); muffle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); muffle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); muffle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-muffle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “muffle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/muffle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.