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nudge.

A gentle push.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/nʌd͡ʒ/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/nɐd͡ʒ/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. A gentle push.

    give someone a nudge

  2. A feature of instant messaging software used to get the attention of another user, as by shaking the conversation window or playing a sound.

    Internet

  3. The rotation by one step of a fruit machine reel of the player's choice.

    Since the machine was showing two lemons and a cherry, I decided to try a nudge.

  4. The use of positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions as ways to influence.

Where this word comes from

Circa 17th century, perhaps of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian nugge, nyggje (“to push, rub, shove”), Icelandic nugga (“to rub, massage”), from the root of Proto-Germanic *hnōjaną (“to smooth, join together”), from Proto-Indo-European *kneh₂- (compare Ancient Greek κνάω (knáō, “to scratch, scrape”), source of English acnestis). Compare also Scots nodge (“to push, poke, nudge”), knidge (“to push, squeeze”), gnidge (“to rub, press, squeeze, bruise”), and knudge (“to squeeze, press down with the knuckles”), Saterland Frisian Nukke, Nuk (“a sudden push”), Middle Low German nucke, nücke, gnücke (“a sudden push, shock, impetus”). Compare also dialectal nuch (“to tremble”), Middle English nuchen (“to tremble”).

verb/nʌd͡ʒ/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/nɐd͡ʒ/Australia, New-Zealand

  1. To push against gently, especially in order to gain attention or give a signal.

    transitive

  2. To near or come close to something.

    transitive
    This year's profits are nudging the 10 million mark.

  3. To move slightly.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Circa 17th century, perhaps of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian nugge, nyggje (“to push, rub, shove”), Icelandic nugga (“to rub, massage”), from the root of Proto-Germanic *hnōjaną (“to smooth, join together”), from Proto-Indo-European *kneh₂- (compare Ancient Greek κνάω (knáō, “to scratch, scrape”), source of English acnestis). Compare also Scots nodge (“to push, poke, nudge”), knidge (“to push, squeeze”), gnidge (“to rub, press, squeeze, bruise”), and knudge (“to squeeze, press down with the knuckles”), Saterland Frisian Nukke, Nuk (“a sudden push”), Middle Low German nucke, nücke, gnücke (“a sudden push, shock, impetus”). Compare also dialectal nuch (“to tremble”), Middle English nuchen (“to tremble”).

noun

  1. Alternative form of nudzh.

    alt-of · alternative
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.