Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Covered with fuzz.
  • adjective Of or resembling fuzz.
  • adjective Not clear; indistinct.
  • adjective Not coherent; confused.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Covered with fuzz; liable to give off fuzz: as, a fuzzy caterpillar.
  • Like fuzz or down; fluffy: as, a fuzzy nap; a fuzzy fringe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Prov. Eng. Not firmly woven; that ravels.
  • adjective Furnished with fuzz; having fuzz; like fuzz.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Covered with fuzz or a large number of tiny loose fibres like a carpet or many stuffed animals. Mentioned in the popular nursery rhyme Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear.
  • adjective Vague or imprecise.
  • adjective Not clear; unfocused.
  • noun an individual flake of fuzzies

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective confused and not coherent; not clearly thought out
  • adjective covering with fine light hairs
  • adjective indistinct or hazy in outline

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from Low German fussig, spongy; see pū̆- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From fuzz +‎ -y.

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Examples

  • My recipe for a defence review would be to adopt a much more 'fuzzy' approach (after the term fuzzy logic).

    The Guardian World News Hélène Mulholland 2010

  • My recipe for a defence review would be to adopt a much more 'fuzzy' approach (after the term fuzzy logic).

    The Guardian World News Hélène Mulholland 2010

  • The changes are being driven by students 'lagging performance on international tests and mathematicians' warnings that more than a decade of so-called reform math — critics call it fuzzy math — has crippled students with its de-emphasizing of basic drills and memorization in favor of allowing children to find their own ways to solve problems.

    Sound Politics: Where's The Math Makes The NYT 2006

  • This also enables what you call fuzzy, but my guess it's just an evolutionarily approach to handle new or defect brain regions / layers.

    GigaOM 2009

  • The Lancet, the critics pounced, again honing in on what they called fuzzy math.

    MotherJones.com 2008

  • There are lots of important things in fuzzy territory, hard to assign to one regiime.

    Archive 2009-02-01 Rebecca Tushnet 2009

  • He said: I was still a bit fuzzy from the surgery but reached for my glasses and put them on and I couldn't see a thing.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • Fred ♪ ♫ ♪ says: smitty needs to join fuzzy nuts at the bar.

    Think Progress » Man ‘disenchanted with the federal government’ indicted for planting pipe bombs in mailboxes. 2010

  • There are Grizzly bears in both places too, and I'm happy to carry extra horsepower when ol 'fuzzy is around.

    The "Infallible" Shoulder Shot 2009

  • There are Grizzly bears in both places too, and I'm happy to carry extra horsepower when ol 'fuzzy is around.

    The "Infallible" Shoulder Shot 2009

Comments

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  • Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.

    Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.

    Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?

    December 24, 2006

  • Maybe Fuzzy Wuzzy was another missing link in the evolution chain..

    January 27, 2007

  • Fuzzy Wuzzy was a skinhead bear?

    Same old story, polar bears tryin' to keep the black bear down.

    January 27, 2007

  • As in "fuzzy logic".

    August 24, 2007