foozle

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.

Foozle is recorded in the 19th century, possibly a German root meaning “to work badly or clumsily.” As a noun, foozle can mean “old fogy,” though the relationship between the two words is unclear.

Foozle has been used for bungling a golf stroke or a shot missed (foozled) since the 1890s. As The Complete Golfer critiqued a swing in 1905: “There was no power in this stroke, nothing to send the ball along. Therefore length was impossible, and a foozle was quite likely.”

Foozle as a word to describe a video game’s final boss, often unimaginative and rote in form, emerged at least by the 2000s. Games or missions featuring such bosses are sometimes called kill-the-foozles. This foozle may draw on the foozle in its “bungle” or “fogy” senses.

Kill Foozle means the goal of the game is to kill a Foozle (or "boss" in the idiom of arcade gamers) (this is a negative thing). Monty Haul means the dungeon master (or "game" in the idiom of gamers) hands out many magic items (much like Monty Hall, the host of Let's Make A Deal)

— Mortis (@just_mortis) March 11, 2018

Foozle can be used in a few ways: as verbal adjective foozled (“bungled,” also slang for “drunk”), noun (e.g., That was quite the foozle!), and verb (e.g., Make sure you don’t foozle it.)

For most of the general population, foozle is a quaint, old-fashioned word and doesn’t get used much outside of video games or the golf course.

How to foozle a mail within the first line pic.twitter.com/FOOmbTvXv5

— Rat King 👹 (@RatKingsLair) April 22, 2015

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.