Lexic.us

Definition of Boggle

1. Verb. Startle with amazement or fear.

2. Verb. Hesitate when confronted with a problem, or when in doubt or fear.

3. Verb. Overcome with amazement. "The performance is likely to boggle Sue"; "This boggles the mind!"

Definition of Boggle

1. v. i. To stop or hesitate as if suddenly frightened, or in doubt, or impeded by unforeseen difficulties; to take alarm; to exhibit hesitancy and indecision.

2. v. t. To embarrass with difficulties; to make a bungle or botch of.

Definition of Boggle

1. Verb. (intransitive) To be bewildered, dumbfounded, or confused. ¹

2. Verb. (transitive) To confuse or mystify; overwhelm. ¹

3. Verb. (US dialect) To embarrass with difficulties; to bungle or botch. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Boggle

1. to hesitate [v -GLED, -GLING, -GLES] - See also: hesitate

Lexicographical Neighbors of Boggle

bogged bogged down bogged off bogger boggers boggery boggier boggiest boggily bogginess

bogginesses bogging bogging down bogging off boggish boggle (current term) boggled boggler bogglers boggles

bogglesome boggling bogglingly bogglish boggsite boggy bogie bogies bogland boglands

Literary usage of Boggle

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Glossary of Words Used in Swaledale, Yorkshire by John Harland (1876)
"See Boh, the progenitor of the terrifying Iwh and boggle, ... The woods of Mulgrave, near Whitby, were haunted by the boggle or sprite Jeanie of ..."

2. Transactions by American Ethnological Society (1861)
"The scene at boggle Houses may be described as the wildest in the entire district embraced, being in the nature of a ravine or " bight,c enclosed to the ..."

3. The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptoms by Robert Burton (1862)
"... as Matilda or Dorinda; if not, she is resolved as yet to tarry, so apt are young maids to boggle at every object, so soon won or lost with every toy, ..."

4. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage by Inc. Merriam-Webster (1994)
"Barzun thinks that making a transitive out of boggle is contrary to usage. ... Barzun also says boggle describes what a horse does when it is startled and ..."

5. A Dictionary of English Etymology by Hensleigh Wedgwood (1859)
"We start and boggle at every unusual appearance, and cannot endure the sight of the. bug-bear.—Glanville in Todd. In Prov. ..."

6. The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats: Complete in One Volume by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats (1829)
"... Absent and dreaming, to the banquet; that He may not boggle at the signature. 0 Lady ! tell me. Is all changed around met Or Ц it only Iï COUNT*: se. ..."

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