fudging numbers
Massaging the data
Fudging numbers is manipulating data or figures to make them appear more favorable, often through minor adjustments rather than outright fabrication.
The practice ranges from rounding generously to concealing inconvenient facts: The company was fudging numbers to meet quarterly targets.
Unlike falsifying, fudging suggests softening or obscuring rather than inventing wholesale.
- cookingPreparing food with heat
- fabricatingManufacturing falsely
- manipulatingInfluencing through cunning
- inflatingCausing to expand
- doctoringAltering deceptively
massaging · tweaking · moving the goalposts · falsifying · cheating · slush fund · funny money · creative accounting · off the books · padding · skewing · distorting · finagling · jiggering · pencil whipping · embellishing · misrepresenting · cooking the books
- financial fraudsecurities fraud, bank fraud, accounting fraud, defalcation, embezzler
- workplace fraudpayroll fraud, embezzlement, cash theft, kickbacks, ghost employees
fudging numberstelling the truth
full disclosure · coming clean · straight shooting · straight dealing
fudge, fudged, fudges, number, numbers, numbered, numbering, numberless, innumerable