Adjacent Words

Bog definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BOG, n.
1. A quagmire covered with grass or other plants. It is defined by marsh, and morass, but differs from a marsh, as a part from the whole. Wet grounds are bogs, which are the softest and too soft to bear a man; marshes or fens, which are less soft, but very wet; and swamps, which are soft spongy land,upon the surface,but sustain man and beast, and are often mowed.
2. A little elevated spot or clump of earth, in marshes and swamps, filled with roots and grass. [This is a common use of the word in New England.]
BOG, v.t. To whelm or plunge, as in mud and mire.
BOG'-BEAN, n. [bog and bean; called buck-bean.]
Menyanthes, a plant, the marsh-trefoil, which grows in moist and marshy places.
BOG'-BERRY, n. [bog and berry.] Vaccinium, a name of the cranberry growing in low lands and marshy places.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation; has poorer drainage than a swamp; soil is unfit for cultivation but can be cut and dried and used for fuel [syn: bog, peat bog] v
1: cause to slow down or get stuck; "The vote would bog down the house" [syn: bog down, bog]
2: get stuck while doing something; "She bogged down many times while she wrote her dissertation" [syn: bog down, bog]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English (Scots), from Scottish Gaelic & Irish bog- (as in bogluachair bulrushes), from bog marshy, literally, soft, from Middle Irish bocc; probably akin to Old English b?gan to bend — more at bow Date: 14th century wet spongy ground; especially a poorly drained usually acid area rich in accumulated plant material, frequently surrounding a body of open water, and having a characteristic flora (as of sedges, heaths, and sphagnum) • boggy adjective II. verb (bogged; bogging) Date: 1599 transitive verb to cause to sink into or as if into a bog ; impede, mire — usually used with down intransitive verb to become impeded or stuck — usually used with down III. noun Etymology: short for boghouse, from British argot bog to defecate Date: circa 1789 British lavatory 2

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a wet spongy ground. b a stretch of such ground. 2 Brit. sl. a lavatory. --v.tr. (bogged, bogging) (foll. by down; usu. in passive) impede (was bogged down by difficulties). Phrases and idioms: bog-bean = BUCKBEAN. bog myrtle a deciduous shrub, Myrica gale, which grows in damp open places and has short upright catkins and aromatic grey-green leaves: also called sweet-gale (see GALE(2)). bog oak an ancient oak which has been preserved in a black state in peat. bog spavin see SPAVIN. bog-trotter sl. derog. an Irishman. Derivatives: boggy adj. (boggier, boggiest). bogginess n. Etymology: Ir. or Gael. bogach f. bog soft

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bog Bog, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bogged; p. pr. & vb. n. Bogging.] To sink, as into a bog; to submerge in a bog; to cause to sink and stick, as in mud and mire. At another time, he was bogged up to the middle in the slough of Lochend. --Sir W. Scott.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bog Bog, n. [Ir. & Gael. bog soft, tender, moist: cf. Ir. bogach bog, moor, marsh, Gael. bogan quagmire.] 1. A quagmire filled with decayed moss and other vegetable matter; wet spongy ground where a heavy body is apt to sink; a marsh; a morass. Appalled with thoughts of bog, or caverned pit, Of treacherous earth, subsiding where they tread. --R. Jago. 2. A little elevated spot or clump of earth, roots, and grass, in a marsh or swamp. [Local, U. S.] Bog bean. See Buck bean. Bog bumper (bump, to make a loud noise), Bog blitter, Bog bluiter, Bog jumper, the bittern. [Prov.] Bog butter, a hydrocarbon of butterlike consistence found in the peat bogs of Ireland. Bog earth (Min.), a soil composed for the most part of silex and partially decomposed vegetable fiber. --P. Cyc. Bog moss. (Bot.) Same as Sphagnum. Bog myrtle (Bot.), the sweet gale. Bog ore. (Min.) (a) An ore of iron found in boggy or swampy land; a variety of brown iron ore, or limonite. (b) Bog manganese, the hydrated peroxide of manganese. Bog rush (Bot.), any rush growing in bogs; saw grass. Bog spavin. See under Spavin.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(bogs, bogging, bogged) A bog is an area of land which is very wet and muddy. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Morass, quagmire, slough, fen, marsh, swamp, moss.

Moby Thesaurus

baygall, bemire, bog down, bottom, bottomland, bottoms, buffalo wallow, cesspool, cloaca, cloaca maxima, drain, dump, everglade, fen, fenland, garbage dump, glade, hog wallow, holm, marais, marish, marsh, marshland, meadow, mere, mire, moor, moorland, morass, moss, mud, mud flat, peat bog, quag, quagmire, quicksand, salt marsh, septic tank, sewer, sink, sink in, slob land, slough, sough, stodge, sump, swale, swamp, swampland, taiga, wallow, wash