foozle

American  

[foo-zuhl] / ˈfu zəl /

verb (used with or without object)

foozled, foozling

1. to bungle; play clumsily.

   to foozle a stroke in golf;

   to foozle on the last hole.

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noun

1. act of foozling, especially a bad stroke in golf.

foozle British  

/ ˈfuːzəl /

verb

1. to bungle (a shot)

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noun

1. a bungled shot

Usage

What does foozle mean? A foozle is a botched or bungled attempt at something, usually a shot in golf. It's also a verb meaning "to bungle."It's sometimes used in the gaming community to describe a final boss.

Other Word Forms

• foozler
  noun

Etymology

Origin of foozle

First recorded in 1825–35; perhaps from dialectal German fuseln “to work badly, clumsily, hurriedly”

Explanation

Though most frequently used in golf, foozle means any failed attempt at doing something. If you're looking to impress your crush by lining up a cool shot in a pool game, you'd better not foozle it. The origin of this mysterious word is not known. Some people think that the German dialect word fuseln, meaning "to work clumsily," may be part of its history, but how it worked its way from German to the golf course is not known even if it is true. And although it's usually a verb, golfers can use it as a noun, too: "She set up that shot so well, only for it to be a foozle."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foozle foozled foozling

In Seven Gables, as Matthiessen takes pleasure in showing, he worked out a thorough and frightening economic-spirit ual image of America, only to foozle it at the end.

From Time Magazine Archive

Fo's jokes sometimes foozle aimlessly about the room like a balloon that jets on its own escaping air.

From Time Magazine Archive

At that, the American got 38 and was only 1 down when the gruelling told and she began to cut drives, to foozle putts.

From Time Magazine Archive

Steady yourself now, and try not to make a foozle of it, old man.

From Motor Boat Boys Down the Coast or Through Storm and Stress to Florida by Arundel, Louis

Oh, well, I don't want to boast, you know, Max, 'cause I might happen to make a foozle out of it.

From With Trapper Jim in the North Woods by Leslie, Lawrence J.

The former thought produces an infallibly crisp hit, but in a variable direction, and the latter gives excellent aim to a sometimes foozled stroke.

From Golf Digest ● May 7, 2020

But for the most part it was a lowlight reel of snap-hooked tee shots, foozled chips and ball-in-pocket pick-ups.

From Golf Digest ● Feb. 11, 2017

At the 17th tee they were even; both foozled drives; Legg was trapped on his second; trapped on his third; missed a long putt, conceded the hole, lost the match 1 down.

From Time Magazine Archive

In two previous series, 1934's and 1940's, they had got that far and foozled.

From Time Magazine Archive

He dug his partner's foozled drives out of heather and hedge and laid her wild approaches dead with a niblick.

From Years of Plenty by Brown, Ivor

There is much easy fun with linen dusters, carbide headlights, rachitic engines and foozling radiators.

From Time Magazine Archive

I was foozling my approach right along anyway, and the St. Christopher thing couldn't have changed that.

From The House of Toys by Miller, Henry Russell

“I do not recall it,” said Ananias, foozling his second stroke into the stone wall.

From Mr. Munchausen  Being a True Account of Some of the Recent Adventures beyond the Styx of the Late Hieronymus Carl Friedrich, Sometime Baron Munchausen of Bodenwerder by Bangs, John Kendrick

It's all nonsense what you read in the comic papers about people foozling all over the place and breaking clubs and all that.

From The Clicking of Cuthbert by Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)

However, the chances were more in favor of my foozling the long throw than that Nobs would fall down in his part if I gave him the chance.

From The People That Time Forgot by Burroughs, Edgar Rice