Word.ws English Dictionary

bog

/bɔɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

cot caught merger/bɑɡ/

bog noun: an area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking. Also the alternative form of bug.

Noun (1)

bog (plural bogs)

  1. An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking.
    • Near-synonyms: fen, slough, moor
    • They that ride so... fall into foule Boggs.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    Synonyms:
    marsh, swamp, mire, fen, slough, moor
    1. (specifically, wetland science) 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[…]1996, Geological Survey (U.S.), National Water Summary on Wetland Resources, →ISBN, page 214
      • Bogs are acidic peatlands, characteristic of boreal forests and mountainous regions (Figures 9.3 and 9.4). Their hydrology is precipitation driven as bogs do not receive floodwaters from neighboring rivers and streams[…]2016 December 19, Ralph W. Tiner, Wetland Indicators: A Guide to Wetland Formation, Identification, Delineation, Classification, and Mapping, Second Edition, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 122
    2. (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!1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 101
  2. (figuratively) Confusion, difficulty, or any other thing or place that impedes progress in the manner of such areas.
    • ...quagmires and bogges of Romish superstition...1614, John King, Vitis Palatina, page 30
    • Last day my mind was in a bog.a. 1796, Robert Burns, Poems & Songs, volume I
    Synonyms:
    mire, quagmire, morass
  3. (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
    • I'm in the bog
  4. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) An act or instance of defecation.
  5. (US, dialectal) A little elevated spot or clump of earth, roots, and grass, in a marsh or swamp.
  6. (US) Chicken bog.
    • Damon does emphasize that great red rice should always be fluffy and never mushy like a rice bog.2013, James Villas, Southern Fried: More Than 150 Recipes for Crab Cakes, Fried Chicken, Hush Puppies, and More, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 196
    • I love Chicken Bog because it's one of those very regional recipes that has survived […] Don't skim or otherwise remove the fat from the stock though—it will help flavor the bog. Let the chicken cool and then pick the meat, setting it aside for the bog recipe that follows. The broth will[…]2016 October 1, Elliott Moss, Buxton Hall Barbecue's Book of Smoke: Wood-Smoked Meat, Sides, and More, Voyageur Press, →ISBN, page 113

Verb (1)

bog (third-person singular simple present bogs, present participle bogging, simple past and past participle bogged)

  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.1928, American Dialect Society, American Speech, volume IV, page 132
  2. (figuratively) To prevent or slow someone or something from making progress.
    • […] Bogg'd in his filthy Lusts […]1605, Ben Jonson, Seianus His Fall, act IV, scene i, line 217
    • […] whose profession to forsake the World... bogs them deeper into the world.1641, John Milton, Animadversions, page 58
  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.a. 1800, The Trials of James, Duncan, and Robert M'Gregor, Three Sons of the Celebrated Rob Roy, page 120
  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.

Adjective

bog (comparative bogger, superlative boggest)

  1. (obsolete) Bold; boastful; proud.
    • The Cuckooe, seeing him so bog, waxt also wondrous wroth.1592, William Warner, chapter XXXVII, in Albions England, volume VII, page 167
    • Bogge, bold, forward, sawcy. So we say, a very bog Fellow.1691, John Ray, South and East Country Words, page 90

Noun (2)

bog (plural bogs)

  1. (obsolete) Puffery, boastfulness.
    • Their bog it nuver ceases.1839, Charles Clark, John Noakes and Mary Styles, l. 3

Verb (2)

bog (third-person singular simple present bogs, present participle bogging, simple past and past participle bogged)

  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.1546, State Papers King Henry the Eighth, volume XI, published 1852, page 163
    • A Frencheman: whom he [Manlius Torquatus] slew, being bogged [Latin: provocatus] by hym.1556, Nicholas Grimald's translation of Cicero as Marcus Tullius Ciceroes Thre Bokes of Duties to Marcus His Sonne, Vol. III, p. 154

Verb (3)

bog (third-person singular simple present bogs, present participle bogging, simple past and past participle bogged)

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

Verb (4)

bog (third-person singular simple present bogs, present participle bogging, simple past and past participle 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.2023 August 4, anonymous author, 4chan, /lgbt/

Proper noun capitalized: BoG

BoG

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Bank of Ghana.
  2. (US, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of (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...2025 July 31, Leah Downey, “What could a Trump appointee do at the Fed?”, in Financial Times, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2025, page 17

Noun (3) capitalized: BOG

BOG

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

Also used as

bog is also the alternative form of bug.

bog meaning in Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

bog in Marathi

बोग

bog in Bengali

বোগ

bog in Malayalam

expanse of marshland
ചതുപ്പ് catuppŭ

bog in Kannada

ಬೋಗ್
More languagesFewer languages
bog in Gujarati
બોગ
bog in Odia
ବୋଗ୍
bog in Sanskrit
पङ्क paṅka
bog in Nepali
बोग
bog in Tagalog
kuminoy, burak, kaburakan, tumok
bog in Arabic
مستنقع mustanqaʕ
bog in Persian
خلاش xalâš
bog in Thai
หนอง nɔ̌ɔng

Examples of bog in a sentence

  • Certaine... places [in Ireland]... which of their softnes are vsually tearmed Boghes.1612, John Speed, chapter IV, in The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, volume IV, page 143:
  • [W]e entered a region where the stream widened out and formed a considerable bog.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
  • [Cedar Bog] is a living museum of plants that once were spread over a far wider area.1974 02, “Boys' Life”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 21:
  • Bear this in mind as you move through the bog.'2004 November 15, Retro Studios, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Nintendo, level/area: Main Energy Controller (Great Temple):

All 40 example sentences with bog

Synonyms of bog

All synonyms of bog

Forms of bog

Noun
pluralbogs
alternative formbogg
alternative formbogge
alternative formboghe
Verb
third-person singular presentbogs
present participlebogging
past participlebogged
pastbogged

Past tense of bog: bogged

Plural of bog: bogs

Origin of bog

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.

See bug

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

Words formed from bog

Phrases with bog

42 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bog

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bog

What does bog mean?
Bog means an area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking.
What is bog in Marathi?
Bog in Marathi is बोग. See Bog meaning in Marathi.
How do you use bog in a sentence?
Certaine... places [in Ireland]... which of their softnes are vsually tearmed Boghes.
What part of speech is bog?
Bog can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bog?
Bog is pronounced /bɔɡ/ (US).
What is the plural of bog?
The plural of bog is bogs.

Words near bog in the dictionary

  1. Bofors guns
  2. BOFs
  3. BOFT
  4. BOFU
  5. bofumustine
  6. bog
  7. bog arum
  8. bog arums
  9. bog asphodel
  10. bog asphodels
  11. bog beacon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bog (page history and authors); BoG (page history and authors); BOG (page history and authors); bog (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bog (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bog (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bog (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bog (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bog (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bog.ogg, en-uk-bog.ogg, EN-AU ck1 bog.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.