Word.ws English Dictionary

budge

/bʌd͡ʒ/

budge verb: to move; to be shifted from a fixed position.

Verb

budge (third-person singular simple present budges, present participle budging, simple past and past participle budged)

  1. (intransitive) To move; to be shifted from a fixed position.
    • I’ve been pushing this rock as hard as I can, but it won’t budge an inch.
    • Ile not budge an inch boy: Let him come, and kindly.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. (transitive) To move; to shift from a fixed position.
    • I’ve been pushing this rock as hard as I can, but I can’t budge it.
  3. To yield in one’s opinions or beliefs.
    • The Minister for Finance refused to budge on the new economic rules.
    • If only I could get Ambrose to take me away somewhere! But he won't budge.1933, Richard Curle, Corruption, page 75
  4. (Canada, Western, Upper Midwestern US, Indiana) To cut or butt (in line); to join the front or middle rather than the back of a queue.
    • Hey, no budging! Don't budge in line!
  5. To try to improve the spot of a decision on a sports field.

Noun (1)

budge (uncountable)

  1. A kind of fur prepared from lambskin dressed with the wool on, formerly used as an edging and ornament, especially on scholastic habits.
    • They are become so liberal, as to part freely with their own budge-gowns from off their backs.1649, John Milton, Observations
    • One hundred pieces of green silk for the Knights; fourteen budge furs for surcoats; thirteen hoods of budge for clerks, and seventy furs of lamb for liveries in summer.1787, An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, page 282

Adjective

budge (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) austere or stiff, like scholastics
    • Those budge doctors of the stoic fur.1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
    • The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge, He says but little and that little said, 'Owes all its weight, like loaded dice, to lead.1784, John Wesley, The Magazine of the Wesleyan Methodist Church - Volume 7, page 393

Noun (2)

budge (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete, slang) Alcoholic drink.

Proper noun capitalized: Budge

Budge (plural Budges)

  1. A surname.

budge meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

budge in Tamil

intransitive: to move
அசை acai
transitive: to move
அசை acai

budge in Urdu

ٹس سے مس ہونا

budge in Malayalam

ചലിക്കുക, ഇളകുക

budge in Kannada

ಕದಲು, ಅಲುಗು, ಎಡೆಜರಿ
More languagesFewer languages
budge in Thai
ขยับ kà-yàp

Examples of budge in a sentence

  • Women still make only 83 percent of what men do in the U.S.—a stat that has barely budged in the past 20 years.2023 March 13, Naureen Khan, “Doug Emhoff Wants Men to Clear the Path for More Kamalas”, in Cosmopolitan:
  • "My boy looked at me very budge," i.e., solemn.1931, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, page 684:

All 26 example sentences with budge

Synonyms of budge

Forms of budge

Verb
third-person singular presentbudges
present participlebudging
past participlebudged
pastbudged
alternative form (obsolete)bouge
alternative form (obsolete)budg
Proper noun
pluralBudges

Past tense of budge: budged

Origin of budge

Borrowed from Middle French bouger, from Old French bougier, from Vulgar Latin *bullicāre (“to bubble; seethe; move; stir”), from Latin bullīre (“to boil; seethe; roil”). More at boil.

From Middle English bouge, bougie, bugee, from Anglo-Norman bogé, from Anglo-Latin *bogea, bulgia, related to Latin bulga (“a leathern bag or knapsack”). Doublet of bulge.

Perhaps related to booze.

Words formed from budge

Phrases with budge

Words that rhyme with budge

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about budge

What does budge mean?
Budge means to move; to be shifted from a fixed position.
What is budge in Tamil?
Budge in Tamil is அசை (acai). See Budge meaning in Tamil.
How do you use budge in a sentence?
Women still make only 83 percent of what men do in the U.S.—a stat that has barely budged in the past 20 years.
What part of speech is budge?
Budge can be a verb, a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce budge?
Budge is pronounced /bʌd͡ʒ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of budge?
The past tense of budge is budged.

Words near budge in the dictionary

  1. Bude-Stratton
  2. Budeasa
  3. budesonide
  4. Budești
  5. budg
  6. budge
  7. budge an inch
  8. budge bachelor
  9. budge bachelors
  10. budge barrel
  11. budge barrels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: budge (page history and authors); Budge (page history and authors); budge (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); budge (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); budge (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-budge.wav.

Cite this entry: “budge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/budge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.