Word.ws English Dictionary

boggle

UK/ˈbɒɡ.əl/US/ˈbɑ.ɡəl/

boggle verb: (literally or figuratively) to stop or hesitate as if suddenly seeing a bogle. Also the alternative form of bogle.

Verb

boggle (third-person singular simple present boggles, present participle boggling, simple past and past participle boggled)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) (literally or figuratively) to stop or hesitate as if suddenly seeing a bogle.
    • The dogs went on, but the horse boggled at the sudden appearance of the strange beast.
    • The horror of the deed and its consequences boggle the imagination.
  2. (intransitive) To be bewildered, dumbfounded, or confused.
    • He boggled at the surprising news.
    • The mind boggles.
  3. (transitive) To confuse or mystify; overwhelm.
    • The vastness of space really boggles the mind.
    • The oddities of quantum mechanics can boggle the minds of students and experienced physicists alike.
  4. (US, dialectal) To embarrass with difficulties; to palter or equivocate; to bungle or botch
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To dissemble; to play fast and loose (with someone or something).
    • I would be loth to exchange consciences with them, and boggle so with God Almighty; but these men by a new kind of Metaphysick have found out a way to abstract the Person of the King from his Office to make his Soveraigntie a kinde of Platonick Idea hovering in the aire, while they visibly attempt...1643, James Howell, The True Informer, London, page 32
  6. (intransitive) To wiggle the eyes as a result of bruxing.

Noun

boggle (plural boggles)

  1. (dated) A scruple or objection.
  2. (dated) A bungle; a botched situation.

Also used as

boggle is also the alternative form of bogle.

Examples of boggle in a sentence

  • You boggle shrewdly, every feather starts you […]c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
  • He boggled at arranging for bread to be left daily at some place within easy walking distance, but let that go.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 18:
  • […] we start and boggle at what is unusual: and like the Fox in the fable at his first view of the Lyon, we cannot endure the sight of the Bug-bear, Novelty.1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter 14, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing, London: Henry Eversden, page 131:
  • My imagination boggled at the punishment I would deserve […]1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 15, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 82:

All 18 example sentences with boggle

Forms of boggle

Verb
third-person singular presentboggles
present participleboggling
past participleboggled
pastboggled
Noun
pluralboggles

Past tense of boggle: boggled

Origin of boggle

Variation or derivation of bogle, possibly cognate with bug.

Words formed from boggle

Phrases with boggle

Words that rhyme with boggle

Questions about boggle

What does boggle mean?
Boggle means (literally or figuratively) to stop or hesitate as if suddenly seeing a bogle.
How do you use boggle in a sentence?
You boggle shrewdly, every feather starts you […]
What part of speech is boggle?
Boggle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce boggle?
Boggle is pronounced /ˈbɒɡ.əl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of boggle?
The past tense of boggle is boggled.

Words near boggle in the dictionary

  1. bogging off
  2. Boggio
  3. Boggios
  4. Boggis
  5. boggish
  6. boggle
  7. boggle eyed
  8. boggle-eyed
  9. bogglebo
  10. boggleboe
  11. boggleboes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boggle (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-boggle.ogg.

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