Join free

BOG

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

bog¹

  • /bɔɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ cot caught merger
  • /bɒɡ/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒɡ

Where it comes from

Inherited from Middle English bog (originally chiefly in Ireland and Scotland), from Irish and Scottish Gaelic bogach (“soft, boggy ground”), from Old Irish bog (“soft”), from Proto-Celtic *buggos (“soft, tender”) + Old Irish -ach, from Proto-Celtic *-ākos.

The frequent use to form compounds regarding the animals and plants in such areas mimics Irish compositions such as bog-luachair (“bulrush, bogrush”).

Its use for toilets is now often derived from the resemblance of latrines and outhouse cesspools to bogholes, but the noun sense appears to be a clipped form of boghouse (“outhouse, privy”), which derived (possibly via boggard) from the verb to bog, still used in Australian English. The derivation and its connection to other senses of "bog" remains uncertain, however, owing to an extreme lack of early citations due to its perceived vulgarity.

noun bogs · bogg · bogge · boghe

  1. An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking. Near-synonyms: fen, slough, moor
  2. specifically An acidic, chiefly rain-fed (ombrotrophic), peat-forming wetland. (Contrast an alkaline fen, and swamps and marshes.) Bogs are acidic, nutrient poor, and have a low species diversity, whereas fens are less acidic and have higher nutrient levels and species diversity. Typically, the herbaceous layer in bogs is dominated by sphagnum moss, whereas[…]
  3. uncountable Boggy ground. He laughed each time a camel sank down, and he laughed as they strained and pulled and struggled to get the beast on to its clumsy feet again. So sure on sand, so clumsy in bog!
  4. figuratively Confusion, difficulty, or any other thing or place that impedes progress in the manner of such areas. ...quagmires and bogges of Romish superstition...
  5. Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, slang A place to defecate: originally specifically a latrine or outhouse but now used for any toilet. I'm on the bog
  6. Australia, New Zealand, slang An act or instance of defecation.
  7. US, dialectal A little elevated spot or clump of earth, roots, and grass, in a marsh or swamp.
  8. US Chicken bog. Damon does emphasize that great red rice should always be fluffy and never mushy like a rice bog.

Similar: morass. See swamp

verb bogs · bogging · bogged · bogg · bogue

  1. often, transitive To sink or submerge someone or something into bogland. To be 'bogged down' or 'mired down' is to be mired, generally in the 'wet valleys' in the spring.
  2. figuratively To prevent or slow someone or something from making progress. […] Bogg'd in his filthy Lusts […]
  3. intransitive, often To sink and stick in bogland. Duncan Graham in Gartmore his horse bogged; that the deponent helped some others to take the horse out of the bogg.
  4. figuratively To be prevented or impeded from making progress, to become stuck.
  5. Australia, intransitive To defecate, to void one's bowels.
  6. Australia, transitive To cover or spray with excrement.
  7. UK, informal, transitive To make a mess of something.

bog²

  • /bɔɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ cot caught merger
  • /bɒɡ/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒɡ

Where it comes from

See bug

noun bogs · bogge

  1. alternative, obsolete Alternative form of bug: a bugbear, monster, or terror.bug

bog³

  • /bɔɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ cot caught merger
  • /bɒɡ/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒɡ

Where it comes from

Uncertain, although possibly related to bug in its original senses of "big" and "puffed up".

adjective bogger · boggest · bug

  1. obsolete Bold; boastful; proud. The Cuckooe, seeing him so bog, waxt also wondrous wroth.

noun bogs · bug

  1. obsolete Puffery, boastfulness. Their bog it nuver ceases.

verb bogs · bogging · bogged · bug

  1. obsolete, transitive To provoke, to bug. If you had not written to me... we had broke now, the Frenchmen bogged us so often with departing.

bog⁴

  • /bɔɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ cot caught merger
  • /bɒɡ/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒɡ

Where it comes from

From bug off, a clipping of bugger off, likely under the influence of bog (coarse British slang for "toilet[s]").

verb bogs · bogging · bogged

  1. UK, euphemistic, slang, usually To go away.

bog⁵

  • /bɔɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ US
  • /bɑɡ/ cot caught merger
  • /bɒɡ/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒɡ

Where it comes from

From an abbreviation of Bogdanoff, in reference to Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff.

verb bogs · bogging · bogged

  1. Internet, transitive To perform excessive cosmetic surgery that results in a bizarre or obviously artificial facial appearance.
  2. Internet, reflexive To have excessive cosmetic surgery performed on oneself, often with a poor or conspicuously unnatural result. My nose is already pretty good and I don't want to bog myself.

BOG⁶

noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of boots on the ground.boots on the ground

BoG⁷

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of Bank of Ghana.Bank of Ghana
  2. US, abbreviation, initialism Initialism of (Federal Reserve) Board of Governors.(Federal Reserve) Board of Governors The BoG is a body of seven members located in Washington, appointed by the president and approved by the senate. The FOMC, which we think of as making monetary policy decisions, is made up of the members of the BoG plus the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four other rotating r

Talk about this word