Other forms: nudged, nudging, nudges
To nudge somebody is to push them gently, usually with an elbow, usually to get their attention without saying anything. It is a small, private signal — the thing you do to the person beside you when you both notice the same thing.
From that comes a figurative use that has become the commoner one in writing: to nudge is to encourage by a small push rather than an instruction. Nudge prices up, nudge somebody towards a decision. Behavioural economics took the word for a whole approach — the nudge theory of changing behaviour by rearranging choices rather than by rules — and that has made it a policy word as much as a physical one. Note nudge nudge, which in British English signals that something is being hinted at with a leer.
1verbnudgeTo push somebody gently, usually with your elbow.
“She nudged me and pointed at the door.”
2verbencourageTo encourage somebody towards something by small pressure rather than instruction.
“The reminder is there to nudge people into booking early.”
3noungentleA small push, or a gentle piece of encouragement.
“He needs a nudge or he will leave it until Friday.”
4verbmoveTo move something a small distance.
“Nudge the picture a little to the left.”
nudge is a gentle push.
Nudge probably arrived from Norse. Norwegian nugge and nyggje mean to push, rub or shove, and Icelandic nugga is to rub or to massage.
Proto-Indo-European
*kneh₂-
Proto-Germanic
*hnōjaną — to smooth, join together
English, today
nudge
Built from
Circa 17th century, perhaps of gmq - 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 (“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”), stq 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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA