fuzz

/fəz/

/fəz/

Other forms: fuzzes

Fuzz is a downy or hair patch of fibers. Most kids love to blow the fuzz off of a dandelion.

The furry growth on your cactus plant is fuzz, and so is your sister's frizzy hair and your cousin's patchy attempt at sideburns. You can also call an unfocused, blurry image fuzz: "I was so tired that there was fuzz at the edges of my vision." Informally, some people refer to police officers as fuzz too, a usage that dates from 1920s US gangster slang.

Definitions of fuzz

1. noun

   filamentous hairlike growth on a plant
   “peach fuzz”

   synonyms: hair, tomentum

   types:

   stinging hair

   a multicellular hair in plants like the stinging nettle that expels an irritating fluid

   beard

   a tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such as iris or grasses

   awn

   slender bristlelike appendage found on the bracts of grasses

   type of:

   enation, plant process

   a natural projection or outgrowth from a plant body or organ
2. noun

   a hazy or indistinct representation
   synonyms: blur

   type of:

   internal representation, mental representation, representation

   a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image
3. noun

   the first beard of an adolescent boy
   type of:

   beard, face fungus, whiskers

   the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
4. noun

   uncomplimentary terms for a policeman
   synonyms: bull, cop, copper, pig

   type of:

   officer, police officer, policeman

   a member of a police force