fug

plural fugs

1. countableinformaluncountabledialectal and school slangA heavy, musty, stuffy, or unpleasant atmosphere, usually in a crowded or poorly ventilated area.

   "I love this time of the year," she said. "So delicious after the fug of summer. It makes one feel so alive."

   1962, Olivia Manning, chapter 26, in The Spoilt City ([The Balkan Trilogy; 2]), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part 4 (The Raid), page 283

   5 more examples

   "Someone's been too much for you," remarks Bistow, seating himself in the most comfortable chair, as a consolation for the prevailing fug.

   1888, [Edward Frederic Benson], chapter I, in Sketches from Marlborough, Marlborough, Wiltshire: Cha[rle]s Perkins, the “Times” Office, →OCLC, page 16

   There was a blizzard on. The cold was something frightful. Made one quite thankful to get back to the fug, though as a rule I think the way these trains are overheated is something scandalous.

   1934 January 1, Agatha Christie, “The Evidence of Colonel Arbuthnot”, in Murder on the Orient Express (A Hercule Poirot Murder Mystery), New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, published 1960, →OCLC, part II (The Evidence), page 128

   On certain days, when hot currents shimmered off Oyster's Reef, we would detect the chalk-dust of the mullock heaps, acrid; or, from the opal mines themselves, the ghastly fug of the tunnels and shafts.

   1996, Janette Turner Hospital, “Prologue”, in Oyster, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Company, published 1998, →ISBN, page 4

   The gym teacher left that year, his successors had no interest in boxing, and society soon passed into a zone where the idea of 13-year-old boys punching one other's faces for educational purposes became as unthinkable as the dense fug of tobacco smoke in our school's staff room.

   2004 November 8, John Derbyshire, “The Straggler: Boxing Day”, in National Review, volume LVI, number 21, New York, N.Y.: National Review, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 56, column 2

   The misty fug his breath had left on the window sparkled in the orange glare of the streetlamp outside, and the artificial light drained his face of all colour so that he looked ghostly beneath his shock of untidy black hair.

   2005 July 16, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “Will and Won’t”, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter; 6), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 42

2. countablefigurativelyA state of chaos or confusion; a daze.

   There was a fug of fear in the room.

   2002, Chris Beckett, “Marcher”, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection, →ISBN

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   Viewed from this perspective, the Victorian era reeks of a suffocating and bigoted complacency, and, no doubt, many white imperialists existed in a fug of self-righteous superiority.

   2006, Colin Kidd, The Forging of Races, →ISBN

   But now am in total fug about what to text Roxster about tonight, and whether I should tell him about the nits.

   2013, Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones: Mad about the Boy, →ISBN, page 7

   Her translations are dimmed over with a fug of late eighteenthcentury poetic diction, a striving for sublimity or for sentimental effect.

   2014, Robert Anthony Welch, The Cold of May Day Monday: An Approach to Irish Literary History, →ISBN

   Somewhere in the fug of her mind she remembered how to close it and fetched the pole, slotting it into the mechanism above and beginning to turn the handles.

   2015, Kate Riordan, The Girl in the Photograph, →ISBN

present singular third person fugs · participle present fugging · participle past fugged · past fugged

1. transitiveTo create a fug (“heavy, musty, stuffy, or unpleasant atmosphere”; etymology 1, noun sense 1) in (a place).

   Inside, the Golden Lion was fugged with the smoke of too many cigarettes and the unhappy sound of a darts team practising.

   2008, Antony Moore, The Swap, →ISBN, page 231

   1 more example

   I'd walked down, for maybe the last time, from my lodgings behind New Fish Street, through air already fugged with smoke from the morning fires.

   2012, Phil Rickman, The Heresy of Dr Dee, →ISBN

2. transitiveTo surround (someone or something) with a fug (etymology 1, noun sense 1).

   The air was warm and close and the late afternoon sun was fugging through grey clouds and making them light - still grey, but light, really light.

   2005, Craig Taylor, Light, →ISBN, page 74

3. transitiveTo put (someone or something) into a fug (“daze”; etymology 1, noun sense 2); to confuse, to daze.

   The adrenalin, though diminished, was still running through my veins; the red mist was lifting but my mind was fugged by this unfamiliar combination of hormones, slowly intermingling with indignity and contrition and the dawning of familiar, ignominious defeat.

   2011, Richard Herring, How Not to Grow Up!: A Coming of Age Memoir. Sort Of., →ISBN, pages 34–35

4. intransitiveTo create a fug (etymology 1, noun sense 1).

   The rich sewer gases fugged around her and she shook her head, trying to clear it.

   2013, Tom Pollock, The Glass Republic: The Skyscraper Throne, →ISBN

   1 more example

   The hub, or nerve center, of the coach business was a big shed next to the stable. It smelled—no, it stank of—no, it fugged of—horses, leather, veterinary medicine, bad coal, brandy, and cheap cigars.

   2004 September 25, Terry Pratchett, “Bonfire”, in Going Postal (A Novel of Discworld; 33), New York, N.Y.: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 218

5. intransitiveSometimes followed by up: to be surrounded by a fug (etymology 1, noun sense 1), for example, in an enclosed, stuffy place.

   Come out and try it. After a few days with us you'll be just longing to get back and fug it in your submarine.

   1957, Neville Shute, On The Beach, page 214

   1 more example

   Well, I like it a jolly sight better than fugging up in those carriages with all that gassing crowd of Garden Home fussers.

   1921, Everybody's Magazine, volume 44, page 38

1. euphemisticEuphemistic form of fuck.

   Oh fug. Whad a mess.

   2012, Drew Campbell, Dead Letter House, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   It's always somethin' or other. Ah, fug it. I'm away now.

   1985, Herbert A. Applebaum, Blue Chips, Brunswick Pub. Co., page 126

   "Why is this door locked?” she shouts. “Oh fug!"

   2015, Lynn Lindquist, Secret of the Sevens, →ISBN

plural fugs

1. Euphemistic form of fuck.
   1. singularsingular onlyPreceded by the: used as an intensifier.

      I mean, who the fug cares?

      2013, Ian McDonald, Out on Blue Six, →ISBN

      2 more examples

      I don't know jes where the fug he think he is at.

      1961, Robert Gover, One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding, page 21

      How the fug does a thug like you know about any preacher?

      2013, Dan Ferullo, Monster Hill, →ISBN

   2. Something of little value.

      I didn't know what any of it meant and didn't give a fug either.

      2013, Anne Lazurko, Dollybird, →ISBN

      1 more example

      After a short pause, Jay proclaimed, "I don't give a fug what you wave in fronna me. I'm sticking to my story."

      2013, Dan Ferullo, Monster Hill, →ISBN

   3. A contemptible person.

      Look at those fugs!

      1942, Army and Navy Journal, volume 80, page 345

      1 more example

      You bein' there an' him bein' there an' you such a fug of a loser an' him such a fug of a winner […]

      2012, Elizabeth George, The Edge of Nowhere, →ISBN

present singular third person fugs · participle present fugging · participle past fugged · past fugged

1. Euphemistic form of fuck.
   1. transitiveUsed to express displeasure about (someone or something).

      He knew he would never eat them; they were merely an added load in his pack. Aaah, fug this.

      1948, Norman Mailer, Naked Dead, page 692

      2 more examples

      Scornfully the driver answered, "Fug you muthafug, you ain't gon drive this muthafuggin cah."

      1969, Seymour Blicker, Blues Chased a Rabbit, page 62

      "Fug this place," Jeff said. "Let's go to the pier in case that jerk comes back with a gun."

      2005, Joe Taylor, The World’s Thinnest Fat Man: Stories, →ISBN, page 82

   2. transitiveTo damage or destroy (something).

      Zit my fault the rotary fugged up and the new one's buggered?

      2007, Paul Mitchell, Dodging the Bull: Stories, →ISBN, page 51

      3 more examples

      You mean like in Zola–because they were fugged up in their turn by their parents.

      2010, Julian Barnes, Metroland, →ISBN, page 39

      Tell them every detail, so they can find an Apprentice again, because if they don't, they're fugged.

      2013, J. Michael Shell, The Apprentice Journals, →ISBN, page 7

      He did an imitation of Big Jerry in full-choke cantankerousness: 'You'll just fug it up.'

      2013, Jonathan Miles, Want Not, →ISBN, page 33

   3. transitiveTo copulate with (someone).

      Married, two children, doesn't let him fug her any more.

      2016, Julian Barnes, Metroland, →ISBN, page 10

      1 more example

      All went well until girls started writing things like, 'I want to win a date with Tuli because I want him to fug me.'

      2014, Richie Unterberger, Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers, →ISBN

plural fugs

1. slangAfrican-American Vernacular; Baltimore; African-American Vernacular; BaltimoreA cigarette.