ˈpuzzle-peg
[f. puzzle n. or v. + peg n.1]
A piece of wood, about a foot in length, pointed at one end and flattened towards the other, fastened to the lower jaw of a dog so that the pointed end projects a few inches in front, and prevents him from putting his nose close to the ground.
| 1819 Sporting Mag. IV. 264 The principal use of the puzzle-peg, appears to be that of worrying and fretting the animal to no purpose. 1870 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. i. iii. §7. 56 By the constant use of this puzzle-peg..the dog loses, by habit, the tendency to stoop. |
b. fig. A puzzling subject, a puzzle.
| 1845 Zoologist III. 947 This last insect, to use the term of its late..describer, has always been a ‘puzzle-peg’. |