bougie
/ˈbuːʒi/
bougie noun: a tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie. Also the alternative spelling of bowjy.
Noun (1)
bougie (plural bougies)
- A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie.
- "There, as my lord, with achromatic glass, / "O'erlooks St. James's Park, and on the grass, / "Beneath his mansion's half-closed window spies / "Two crouching urchins' gross obscenities, / "He turns his eager gaze, adjusts the screw, / "And brings their unwashed nudities in view. / "That spot...1866, “Don Leon”, in Don Leon ; A Poem by the Late Lord Byron, Author of Childe Harold, Don Juan, &c., &c. and forming part of the private journal of His Lordship, supposed to have been entirely...
- I was not too sure, as a child, what doctors "did," and glimpses of catheters and bougies in their kidney dishes, retractors and speculums, rubber gloves, catgut thread, and forecepts - all this, I think, rather frightened me, though it fascinated me too.2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 12
- A wax candle.
Adjective
bougie (comparative bougier, superlative bougiest)
- Behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status, middle-class / bourgeois people (sometimes carrying connotations of fakeness, elitism, or snobbery).
- Hey, look, man, I haven't changed, I'm not gonna change and I'm not down with this bougie stuff.1991 September 23, “Will Gets a Job”, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, season 2, episode 3
- Called “bougie” when she was growing up, even though she’d never considered herself close to that, Ewing has turned the word around, using it as the title of a fictitious magazine she has dreamed up.2007 October 12, L. Kent Wolgamott, “Satire pervades the series of fictional magazine covers”, in The Lincoln Journal Star
- Fancy or good-looking, without connotations of snobbery or pretentiousness.
Noun (2)
bougie (plural bougies)
- A person who exhibits bougie behavior.
- All in all, Black Anglo-Saxons today remain a variegated group, and their numbers continue, relentlessly, to multiply. / In the late 1960's^([sic – meaning 1960s]) following the first appearance of this book, The Black Anglo-Saxons, street militants and conscious members of the Black middle class...1991 [1965], Nathan Hare, “Introduction”, in The Black Anglo-Saxons, page iii
Proper noun capitalized: Bougie
Bougie (countable and uncountable, plural Bougies)
Also used as
bougie is also the alternative spelling of bowjy.
Examples of bougie in a sentence
- I'll be on the movie screens / Magazines and bougie scenes2007, “Glamorous”, performed by Fergie:
- Shangela is kind of bougie, but she's also your homegirl.2010 February 1, “Gone With the Window”, in RuPaul's Drag Race, season 2, episode 1:
- I don't need you or your brand new Benz / Or your bougie friends2010, “Sleazy”, performed by Ke$ha:
- Bougie attitude, I'm from the West End / I want the finer things in life2023, “Outside”, performed by Br3nya:
Synonyms of bougie
Forms of bougie
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bougies |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | bougier |
| superlative | bougiest |
| alternative form | bourgie |
| alternative form | boojie |
| alternative form | boujee |
| alternative form | boujée |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Bougies |
Origin of bougie
Borrowed from French bougie (“wax candle”), after the Algerian city Bougie (Béjaïa), and the tapered, hand-dipped candles it made. The medical instruments were originally made from waxed linen. Doublet of bugia.
From bourgeoisie.
Probably of French origin.
Words formed from bougie
Words that rhyme with bougie
Questions about bougie
- What does bougie mean?
- Bougie means a tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie.
- How do you use bougie in a sentence?
- I'll be on the movie screens / Magazines and bougie scenes
- What part of speech is bougie?
- Bougie can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bougie?
- Bougie is pronounced /ˈbuːʒi/.
- What is the plural of bougie?
- The plural of bougie is bougies.
Words near bougie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bougie (page history and authors); Bougie (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bougie.wav, En-us-bougie.oga.
Cite this entry: “bougie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bougie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.