English

Noun

fuzz ‎(countable and uncountable, plural fuzzes)

1. A frizzy mass of hair or fibre.
   • 1895, Hamlin Garland, Rose of Dutcher's Coolly, page 352:

     His cheeks were like peaches, with much the same sort of fuzz over them.

2. Quality of an image that is unclear; a blurred image.
   • 2010, Iain Boyd Whyte, Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199737697:

     ...scientific advances happen more often at the frontier of representation, at the edge of resolution where an image dissolves into fuzz and blur.

3. (computing) The random data used in fuzz testing.
   • 2008, Asoke Talukder; Manish Chaitanya, Architecting Secure Software Systems, Boca Raton: CRC Press, ISBN 9781420087840, page 94:

     "Fuzz testing" or "fuzzing" is a technique for software testing that provides random data ("fuzz") to the inputs of a program.

4. A distorted sound, especially from an electric guitar or other amplified instrument.
   • 1994, R.A. Penfold, Music Projects, Boston: New Tech, ISBN 0750621192, page 33:

     This gives a good soft clipping effect and a good fuzz sound.

5. A state of befuddlement.
   • 1784, Jonathan Swift, "Journal to Stella", The works of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, page 54:

     I think I'm in a fuzz, and don't know what I ſay, I never ſaw the like.

   • 2016 February 10, Ally, “Signs of an Online Dating Scam”, in Christie Hartman Ph.D., Comments:

     So I'm in a fuzz of not knowing what to do

Translations

Verb

fuzz ‎(third-person singular simple present fuzzes, present participle fuzzing, simple past and past participle fuzzed)

1. (transitive) To make fuzzy.
2. (intransitive) To become fuzzy.
3. (transitive, dated) To make drunk.
   • 2004, Quintin Jardine, Alarm Call, London: Headline, ISBN 0755321030:

     Or maybe my mind was just fuzzed with the drink.

4. (computing) To test a software component by running it on randomly generated input.

References

• "fuzz, n.¹" James A. H. Murray [et al.], editor (1884–1928) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697; and The Oxford English Dictionary; being a Corrected Re-issue with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (the First Supplement), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933, OCLC 2748467.
• “fuzz¹”, in Webster's II New College Dictionary, 2005, ISBN 0618396012

Etymology 2

Unknown. Godfrey Irwin (1930) suggests a possible connection to fuss, "over-particular", excessive bother.

Noun

fuzz ‎(uncountable)

1. (slang, with "the") The police.
   • 2009, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, 0:26:17:

     Let's get the **** out of here before the fuzz turns up

References

• Godfrey Irwin. 1930. American Tramp and Underworld Slang, New York, Sears. OCLC 907782461

Translations

Spanish

Noun

fuzz m ‎(uncountable)

1. fuzz