Past tense: made something badly or dishonestly, or fixed something with a poor makeshift solution.
From 'fudge' (possibly from a surname, but more likely onomatopoetic or from 'fudge' meaning a silly person), which emerged in the 1600s-1700s with meanings of cheating or creating inferior work.
The phrase 'fudged the numbers' is now everywhere in business and politics, but it originally came from actual fudge candy—perhaps because someone was literally mixing and manipulating it imprecisely, and it became a metaphor for careless work.
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