fuzz

Definition

A frizzy mass of hair or fibre.

Etymology

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.”

Example Sentences

• "His cheeks were like peaches, with much the same sort of fuzz over them."
• "Once the eaglets are born—tiny balls of white fuzz—the adult eagles prove that birds can be as protective and solicitous of their young as humans."
• "...scientific advances happen more often at the frontier of representation, at the edge of resolution where an image dissolves into fuzz and blur."