Fugazi
adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A thing or (less commonly) a person that is fake; a fake, a fraud. US, slang
"I took the diamond and looked it over. "I wouldn't get too excited about it," I said, "because this is fake, a fugazy." […] "It's a fugazy," I said. "Take it home for your kid to play with.""
- 1 Fucked up; broken, damaged beyond repair. US, slang
"The two of them were getting bombed on bami-bam, beer, and joints laced with opium. That made answers to questions a long time in coming. "Hey, man, what the fuck can I tell you," said Robbie finally. "All fugazi over here. All fucked up. Number ten. The worst. Don't matter what goes down in this asshole country, know what I mean? Hey, papa-san, don't believe everything you hear, okay?""
- 2 Fake. US, slang
"That broad wouldn't have no fugazy diamonds in her house. We had information the broad didn't have no fake jewelry. It's three fucking carats!"
Example
More examples"The two of them were getting bombed on bami-bam, beer, and joints laced with opium. That made answers to questions a long time in coming. "Hey, man, what the fuck can I tell you," said Robbie finally. "All fugazi over here. All fucked up. Number ten. The worst. Don't matter what goes down in this asshole country, know what I mean? Hey, papa-san, don't believe everything you hear, okay?""
Etymology
Origin unknown; a number of possibilities have been suggested: * One theory is that it is a corruption of French fougasse (“type of land mine”); flame fougasses were used extensively in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. * Less plausibly, it might be from English fugacious (“fleeting”) or cognates such as Italian fugace (“fleeting”). * It has also been suggested that it could be an acronym of “fucked up, got ambushed, zipped in [a body bag]”, but this is more likely a backronym, not the origin (compare FUBAR).
Uncertain; said to be of Mafia origin, from the Fugazy Continental limousine company in New York City which was owned by William “Bill” Fugazy, due to its cheesy “look like a rich guy” advertisements of the 1970s and 1980s, or its alleged poor business practices, possibly influenced by Sicilian fu cazzu (“it was nothing”). The word was popularized by the film Donnie Brasco (1997), based on the book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia (1987) by American former FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone (born 1939) who used the name “Donnie Brasco” as an undercover alias. First use in English appears c. 1974 in the novel Bones of Contention by Nicholas Gage.
Related phrases
More for "fugazi"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.