Cheesing

What is cheesing in gaming?

Exploiting tactics or glitches in a game to win

In gaming, cheesing is when a player exploits an oversight (or glitch) or a tactic to defeat enemies, tasks, players, etc. While it's not technically cheating, many gamers view it negatively as a cheap or unfair way to win.

Cheesing may appear in many forms in video games depending on the gameplay and whether the player is taking advantage of a glitch or strategy. For example, you may accuse a player of cheesing if they use a mushroom boost to jump to the end of Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 64. Or, a veteran gamer may pick a character with an unbeatable skill set, such as Blanka's Electric Thunder move in Street Fighter II or Michael Vick's speed and agility in Madden NFL 2004, to beat other amateur players.

Origin of cheesing

While people have used "cheesy" as slang for "cheap" or "inferior" since at least the late 19th century, the gaming slang term "cheesing" originated in the early 1990s from Street Fighter II. In the game, players could use moves that were disproportionately powerful compared to the skill level of the player using them. Upset gamers described this approach as "cheese strategy" or "cheesing" and the usage in the gaming community has grown from there.

Example

My nephew won't play with me anymore after I was cheesing in Halo
It's not your fault you've been playing that game since before he was born
IKR?!?
Reddit post asking whether or not they are cheesing
Reddit post asking whether or not they are cheesing

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Updated May 16, 2023

Cheesing definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the slang term "Cheesing" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

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