to fudge the details
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
manipular los detalles
- She always fudges the details to make things sound better.
Examples
-
Please don't fudge the details when writing your report for the committee.
-
She was accused of fudging the details to make the results look more impressive.
-
While telling the story, he tended to fudge the details to keep things interesting.
-
Don't fudge the details!
-
During the negotiations, she decided to fudge the details of the contract to make her proposal more appealing.
-
To avoid negative feedback, he chose to fudge the details of the project's timeline.
-
It's not ethical to fudge the details in your report just to make the situation look better.
Synonyms
∞
1.3
To say something that is not true to trick someone
217
4.8
To pretend you know something when you do not
97
4.6
To change facts so they become false or misleading
87
3.9
Make someone believe something that is not true
71
6.9
Give a false story about someone or something to trick people
50
7.3
To make up false information to trick people
44
7.3
To make documents or facts not true to deceive people
30
7.4
To change facts or stories so they are not true
23
8.0
To make something sound better to hide problems
12
4.8
Change facts or numbers to hide the truth
12
6.0
To hide bad facts to make something seem better
11
7.5
To change numbers or facts dishonestly to hide the truth
10
8.0
To describe a person or thing unfairly
8
8.0
To change a message so people cannot understand it
5
5.3
To make a story seem better than it really is
3
5.8
To give wrong information in a report, often by mistake
3
5.9
To say something that is not exactly what happened to make it look better
1
6.4
Change words or facts to make a person look bad
1
9.5
To trick someone by using clever talk
To try to hide a scandal by giving wrong information to the public
To make an idea or situation unclear and confusing
To tell someone a false story to impress or trick them
To trick or cheat someone by lying
Antonyms
Focus immediately on the most important information without extra details
How Dishonest
50
7.3
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'fudge' means to falsify or distort and 'details' means specific facts, so the combined meaning 'to alter or distort the facts' is directly compositional and predictable from the parts. This is a straightforward verb + object construction common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The phrase fudge the details may come from the image of fudge as a soft sweet you can press and shape, so people imagine someone pressing or changing the details. That's why fudge the details means 'to change or hide facts to make something look better'.