Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a conservative, one who is behind the times; a gullible fool; also a nickname [note SE fossil].

1834		Cumberland Pacquet 9 July 4/4: ‘Now let’s see how we can best manage to find old Foozle about his business [...] poor noddy’.
1838		Crim. Con. Gaz. 25 Aug. 3/1: I began to bolster the old foozle.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 65: Old Foozle was one of those who, having accumulated wealth, retire with their housekeepers to spend the remnant of their days in some suburban retreat.
1841		Bucks Herald 11 Sept. 7/4: Uncle Foozle Dissenting Again. That queer old gentleman, the Duke of Sussex [etc.].
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 39 155/2: I began to bolster the old foozle, singing [...] ‘There’s a good time coming’.
1855		‘Q.K. Philander Doesticks’ Doesticks Letters 255: Two old foozles in white neckcloths and no collars.
1867		R. Broughton Cometh up as a Flower 292: So is Lady Lancaster; entertaining kindred frumps and foozles in Eaton Square.
1870		London Standard 14 Apr. 4/2: Olympic [Music hall] This Evening [...] ‘Uncle Foozle’.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 380/1: Foozle (American), a man who is easily humbugged, a fool.

2. (orig. sporting) a miss, a blunder.

1906		Hull Dly Mail 3 Oct. 3/6: Caddie (who has been handsomely tipped by old Foozle): Will ye be workin’ again to-morrow, sir?
1908		N.Y. Globe 17 Apr. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 42: Nearly everybody contributed a foozle to the lost cause.
1927		V. Samuels ‘Baseball Sl.’ in AS II:5 255: A ‘foozle,’ as in golf, is a bungled play.
1929		Derby Dly Teleg. 17 Aug. 10/2: [cartoon caption] ‘The Singing Foozle’.