1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 125 A Snayl..which is..to our feeling, very cold, is fain to brood its as cold sweatty eggs..bespiewing them about with the fuzze of a cold clammy froth.

?1715 M. Davies Present & Primitive State Arianism 60 One continu'd Phuz of Canting Contradictions and sad Aspersions.

c1720 M. Prior Pontius & Pontia ii, in Misc. Wks. (1740) 107 One ask'd, if that high fuzz of hair Was, bona fide, all your Own.

1840 B. H. Smart Walker's Crit. Pronouncing Dict. Fuzz, volatile matter.

1857 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 9 Aug. in Eng. Notebks. (1997) II. vi. 356 Blankets, with the woollen fuzz upon them.

1865 A. Cary Ballads & Lyrics 61 Your hair! why, you've only a little gray fuzz!

1881 Sat. Rev. No. 1320. 203 The expensive valentines are gaudy chromolithographic objects, fluttering in a fuzz of paper-lace.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 7 Puffes, Fusbals or Fusses.

1656 J. Smith Compl. Pract. Physick 45 The most conservent is that Toadstool which is called a Fuss.

1701–2 A. de la Pryme Let. 2 Feb. in Diary (1870) ii. 249 The bottom part of a great cup mushroom, or fuz.

1889 Internat. Ann. Anthonys Photogr. Bull. 370 The importance of knowing beforehand by what standard (focus or fuzz) we are to be judged.

1893 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 40 750 However tolerable a 14 × 12 fuzztype (as they have been jocularly called) may be.

1848 W. M. Thackeray Bk. Snobs xi. 44 A shovel-hatted fuzz-wigged Silenus.

1854 W. M. Thackeray J. Leech's Pictures (1869) 327 There was Rowlandson's..Doctor Syntax in a fuzz-wig.

1711 J. Swift Lett. (1767) III. 155 I think I'm in a fuzz, and don't know what I say.

1929 E. Booth Stealing through Life xii. 301 Don't run, and rank yourself—the fuzz don't know what's doin' yet.

1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 81 Fuzz, a detective; a prison guard or turnkey. Here it is likely that ‘fuzz’ was originally ‘fuss’, one hard to please or over-particular.

1938 D. Runyon Take it Easy ii. 33 A race-track fuzz catches up with him.

1959 Observer 1 Nov. 7/5 ‘Fuzz broke up two of my poetry readings last night.’.. Fuzz means police.

1961 P. G. Wodehouse Ice in Bedroom x. 75 The society of coppers, peelers, flatfeet, rozzers and what are known in the newest argot of her native land as ‘the fuzz’ always affected her with an unpleasant breathlessness.

1964 E. Ambler Kind of Anger iii. 76 If the fuzz get excited we may have to produce her.

1969 Times 25 July 5/2 (heading) Fuzz sock it to the mean cats.

1971 P. G. Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves xv. 165 If the fuzz search my room, I'm sunk.

1676 T. Mace Musick's Monument ii. iv. 57 You may discover the least Crack or Looseness of any Barr, by the shattering or Fuzzing it will make.

1753 E. Moore in World 11 Oct. 248 As to shuffling, fuzzing, changing of seats..he was an absolute ideot.

1754 Ld. Chesterfield in World No. 101. ⁋5 I was also a witness to the rise and progress of that most important verb, to fuzz; which, if not of legitimate birth, is at least of fair extraction..it means no less than dealing twice together with the same pack of cards, for luck's sake, at whist.

1755 Connoisseur No. 60. ⁋3 They can scarce tell what is meant by..fuzzing the cards.

1796 Grose's Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 3) To Fuzz, to shuffle cards minutely; also, to change the pack.

1685 A. Wood Life & Times (1894) III. 152 The University troop dined with the Earl of Abendon at Ricot, and came home well fuz'd.

1702 in J. Kersey New Eng. Dict.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) To Fuzz, to ravel or run out, as some sorts of Stuff and Silk do.

1753 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1862) 2nd Ser. 258 Have you begun the shade for your toilette? If not, I believe you must do it to wash, for the catgut in time grows very limp, and the silk fuses.

1840 B. H. Smart Walker's Crit. Pronouncing Dict. Fuzz, to fly out in small particles.

1862 C. M. Yonge Countess Kate ix. 155 A little flounced frock of a dark silk figured with blue, that looked slightly fuzzed out.

1851 S. Judd Margaret (rev. ed.) xvii The fine grail glancing in her eyes and fuzzing her face.

1775 J. Ash New Dict. Eng. Lang. Fuzzing, flying off in small parts, fretting out in small particles.