warm fuzzy

The term comes from Claude Steiner's children's story The Warm Fuzzy Tale, where it is used in a technical sense to illustrate a concept, "positive stroke", that is used in a type of therapy called transactional analysis.

warm fuzzy (plural warm fuzzies)

1. (informal) A good impression; a feeling of comfort, happiness or trust.

   Antonym: cold prickly

   I suppose they are a reputable business, but I didn't get a warm fuzzy from their salesman.

   • 2005, Michelle Graham, “The Lie We Buy: Beauty and Culture”, in Wanting to Be Her: Body Image Secrets Victoria Won’t Tell You, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, →ISBN, page 11:

     Nostalgia. Walks down memory lane fill me with warm fuzzies—right up there with a warm bubble bath and a good cup of café mocha.

   • 2009 April 19, Paul Bloom, “Natural Happiness”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     There is no payoff to getting the warm fuzzies in the presence of rats, snakes, mosquitoes, cockroaches, herpes simplex and the rabies virus.

2. (informal, chiefly in the plural, often derogatory) A sense of accomplishment after performing an act.

   John picks up litter in our neighborhood because it gives him warm fuzzies.