fudge
verbEtymology Probably a variant of fadge (“to fit”), the confectionery sense having evolved from the meaning of “merging together” or “turning out as expected”.
1
To try to avoid giving a direct answer.
- When I asked them if they had been at the party, they fudged.
2
To alter something from its true state, as to hide a flaw or uncertainty, deliberately but not necessarily dishonestly or immorally.
- The results of the experiment looked impressive, but it turned out the numbers had been fudged.
- I had to fudge the lighting to get the color to look good.
2 more examples
- Do you fudge your age?
- Llama 4, which was released in April 2025, was a flop, and the company was accused of gaming benchmarks to make it look more impressive. [Yann] LeCun admits that the “results were fudged a little bit”, and the team used different models for different benchmarks to give better results.2026 January 3, Melissa Heikkilä, “Lunch with the FT: Yann LeCun”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
3
Ambitransitive, Dated To botch or bungle something.
4
To cheat, especially in the game of marbles.
5
Colloquial Used in place of fuck.
- Check yo' ass, or I'll fudge you up, mach schnell!2000 January 21, Jesse Friedman, “get your wu-name now...”, in alt.music.ween (Usenet), archived from the original on 02 Dec 2025:
- I thought so. And they say I have a bad memory.... Fudge em.2001 September 20, Aerogram, “Things That Irritate A Sane Person”, in alt.worst.of.usenet (Usenet), archived from the original on 02 Dec 2025:
2 more examples
- "Who the fudge are you?" ("Fudge" is not the word he uses but you get the idea.) / We say, "We're with CNN." / "I don't like the fudging media," is his reply. "Who are you supposed to be with?" (It's the first time he hasn't used the "fudge" word in a sentence.)2002 March 15, Martin Savidge, “An uphill battle”, in CNN.com, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2002:
- >>To what are you refering to exactly?. > >to how I fucked your mother I cut her into pieces....... THEN I fudged her.2002 September 13, T, “boy, i've never heard so many retards in my life!”, in alt.music.prince (Usenet), archived from the original on 02 Dec 2025:
- Derived terms
- fudge together, fudger, fudge wheel, unfudged, fudgeable