Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
A frizzy mass of hair or fibre.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Quality of an image that is unclear; a blurred image.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The random data used in fuzz testing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A distorted sound, especially from an electric guitar or other amplified instrument.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A state of befuddlement.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Fuzziness, vagueness.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The police, or any law enforcement agency.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, slang, uncountable, with-definite-article
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Misspelling of fuss.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, misspelling
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To make fuzzy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To become fuzzy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To make drunk.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To test a software component by running it on randomly generated input.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To fly off in minute particles with a fizzing sound, like water from hot metal.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the first beard of an adolescent boy
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: beard, face fungus, whiskers
noun
a hazy or indistinct representation
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: blur
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: representation, mental representation, internal representation
noun
uncomplimentary terms for a policeman
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bull, cop, copper, pig
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: policeman, police officer, officer
noun
filamentous hairlike growth on a plant
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: hair, tomentum
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: plant process, enation
Narrower terms: stinging hair, beard
History
Uncertain. Some dictionaries suggest a Germanic source; compare Low German fussig (“loose; spongy”), Dutch voos (“unsound; rotten”). Others, such as Webster's New College Dictionary, suggest a back-formation from fuzzy. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests, “Perhaps imitative of the action of blowing away light particles.”
Unknown. Godfrey Irwin (1930) suggests a possible connection to fuss, "over-particular", excessive bother.
Across languages
28 source translations are retained for this English entry.
