fudge

Probably a variant of fadge (“to fit”), the confectionery sense having evolved from the meaning of “merging together” or “turning out as expected”.

• IPA^(key): /fʌdʒ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ʌdʒ

fudge (countable and uncountable, plural fudges)

1. (chiefly uncountable) A type of very sweet candy or confection, usually made from sugar, butter, and milk or cream. Often used in the US synonymously with chocolate fudge.

   Have you tried the vanilla fudge? It's delicious!

2. (uncountable) Light or frothy nonsense.
3. (countable) A deliberately misleading or vague answer.
4. (uncountable, dated) A made-up story.

   Synonyms: nonsense, humbug; see also Thesaurus:nonsense

5. (countable) A less than perfect decision or solution; an attempt to fix an incorrect solution after the fact.

• fudge factor
• fudge packer

fudge (third-person singular simple present fudges, present participle fudging, simple past and past participle fudged)

1. (intransitive) To try to avoid giving a direct answer.

   Synonyms: waffle, equivocate, hedge

   When I asked them if they had been at the party, they fudged.

2. (transitive) To alter something from its true state, as to hide a flaw or uncertainty. Always deliberate, but not necessarily dishonest or immoral.

   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.

   Do you fudge you age?

3. (dated, transitive, intransitive) To botch or bungle something.
4. To cheat, especially in the game of marbles.

   Synonyms: cheat; see also Thesaurus:deceive

• fudger
• fudge wheel

fudge

1. (colloquial, minced oath) Used in place of fuck.
2. (colloquial, archaic) Nonsense; tommyrot.
   • 1871, George Eliot, Middlemarch

     Oh, fudge! Don't lecture me.

• fudge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.