bog

Meaning

Noun

1. An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking.
2. (specifically) An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking.
3. (uncountable) An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking.
4. (figuratively) Confusion, difficulty, or any other thing or place that impedes progress in the manner of such areas.
5. (Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK, slang) A place to defecate: originally specifically a latrine or outhouse but now used for any toilet.
6. (Australia, New-Zealand, slang) An act or instance of defecation.
7. (US, dialectal) A little elevated spot or clump of earth, roots, and grass, in a marsh or swamp.
8. (US) Chicken bog.

Verb

1. (often, transitive) To sink or submerge someone or something into bogland.
2. (figuratively) To prevent or slow someone or something from making progress.
3. (intransitive, often) To sink and stick in bogland.
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. (British, informal, transitive) To make a mess of something.

Adj

Bold; boastful; proud.

Verb

To provoke, to bug.

Verb

To go away.

Verb

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.

Synonyms

swamp

marsh

quagmire

morass

fen

mire

marshland

lavatory

toilet

🚽

loo

moor

lav

bog down

can

john

quag

slough

washroom

peat bog

restroom

🚻

bathroom

pond

privy

mud

lake

wetland

WC

🚾

wetlands

swampland

heath

puddle

peatland

water closet

scraw bog

bogland

muskeg

the ladies’ room/the mens’ room

the ladies’/the gents’

morning toilet

pissery

nettie

bathroom

washroom

restroom

🚻

privy

loo

Moor

ombrotrophic raised bog

bath

🛀

bayou

Translations

Sumpf

pantano

palude

marais

Moor

marécage

moeras

Klo

🚽

pantano

tourbière

pantà

αποχωρητήριο

έλος

aiguamoll

Pronounced as (IPA)

/bɔɡ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: bog

In summary

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.