boggard
boggard noun: a bogey: a ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature, especially a small local spirit haunting gloomy places or the scenes of violence.
Noun (1)
boggard (plural boggards)
- A bogey: a ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature, especially a small local spirit haunting gloomy places or the scenes of violence.
- A Boggarde, spectrum.1570, P. Levens, Manipulus Vocabulorum
- He thinks every bush a boggard, i.e. a bugbear or phantasm.1768, John Ray, A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs, published 1818, page 123
- Synonyms:
- goblin
- A bugbear: any terrifying thing.
- Nor be such buggarddes to the poor, yff they may not beare the bagge alone.1575, W. Whittingham, Brieff Discours of the Troubles Begonne at Franckford in Germany A.D. 1554
- Hell is but a boggarde to scarre children.a. 1599, in 1616, Robert Rollock, Lectures upon the History of the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Ch. xiv, page 132
- Any real or imagined thing which prompts a horse to boggle (take fright).
Noun (2)
boggard (plural boggards)
- An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
- Siege, jacques, bogard, or draught, latrina.1552, Richard Huloet, Abcedarium Anglico Latinum
- He [Satan] thought it wisdome to keep the land [of Ireland] for a Boggards for his unclean spirits.1647, Nathaniel Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America, page 76
- Synonyms:
- outhouse
Synonyms of boggard
Forms of boggard
| plural | boggards |
|---|---|
| alternative form | boggart |
| alternative form | bogard |
| alternative form | boggards |
| alternative form (obsolete) | buggard |
| alternative form (obsolete) | baggard |
Origin of boggard
Uncertain; occurring since 16th century in northern and north midlands British dialects; etymologically related to boggle, bogle, and obsolete bog (“a bugbear”); the first element perhaps ultimately a variant of bug (“goblin; terrifying thing; etc.”), and thus equivalent to bog + -ard (“augmentative suffix”).
From bog (“latrine; outhouse”) + -ard.
Words formed from boggard
Questions about boggard
- What does boggard mean?
- Boggard means a bogey: a ghost, goblin, or other hostile supernatural creature, especially a small local spirit haunting gloomy places or the scenes of violence.
- What part of speech is boggard?
- Boggard is a noun.
- What is the plural of boggard?
- The plural of boggard is boggards.
Words near boggard in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: boggard (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “boggard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boggard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.