Fudgeable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be adjusted, altered, or manipulated in a way that may be deceptive or vague
2. Susceptible to modification or bending of facts or numbers to suit a particular purpose
3. Having the quality of being open to distortion or flexible interpretation to influence outcomes

Etymology: "Fudgeable" is simply "fudge" with the suffix "-able," which turns a verb into an adjective meaning "capable of being done or acted upon." The word thus describes figures, reports or facts that can be shaped or bent to suit a purpose. The base word has a more colourful past. "Fudge" first appeared in the sense of a made-up story or nonsense, an interjection-like exclamation of dismissal, before it came to mean misrepresenting or patching something together in a clumsy way. The verb sense of tampering with facts grew naturally from that idea of improvising or falsifying a result, so a "fudgeable" number is one that can be massaged into the shape someone wants. The suffix "-able" comes from Latin "-abilis" through Old French, and it has been attached to English verbs since the Middle Ages, which is why it can turn almost any verb into a description of what can be done to it.

Synonyms: alterable, modifiable, adjustable

Antonyms: fixed, rigid, unchangeable