bog¹

[bog, bawg] /bɒg, bɔg/

noun

wet, spongy ground with soil composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter.

an area or stretch of such ground.

verb (used with object), verb (used without object), bogged, bogging.

to sink in or as if in a bog (often followed by down):

We were bogged down by overwork.

Verb phrases

bog in, Australian Slang. to eat heartily and ravenously.

Origin

1495-1505; < Irish or Scots Gaelic bogach soft ground (bog soft + -ach noun suffix); (def 4) perhaps a different word

Related forms

boggish, adjective

British Dictionary definitions for bog down

bog down

verb bogs, bogging, bogged

(adverb) when tr, often passive. to impede or be impeded physically or mentally

bog

/bɒɡ/

noun

wet spongy ground consisting of decomposing vegetation, which ultimately forms peat

an area of such ground

a place or thing that prevents or slows progress or improvement

a slang word for lavatory (sense 1)

(Austral, slang) the act or an instance of defecating

bog

c.1500, from Gaelic and Irish bogach "bog," from adjective bog "soft, moist," from PIE *bhugh-, from root *bheugh- "to bend" (see bow (v.)). Bog-trotter applied to the wild Irish from 1670s.

"to sink (something or someone) in a bog," c.1600, from bog (n.). Intransitive use from c.1800. Related: Bogged; bogging.

bog down in Science

bog

(bôg)
An area of wet, spongy ground consisting mainly of decayed or decaying peat moss (sphagnum) and other vegetation. Bogs form as the dead vegetation sinks to the bottom of a lake or pond, where it decays slowly to form peat. Peat bogs are important to global ecology, since the undecayed peat moss stores large amounts of carbon that would otherwise be released back into the atmosphere. Global warming may accelerate decay in peat bogs and release more carbon dioxide, which in turn may cause further warming.

Slang definitions & phrases for bog down

bog down

verb phrase

To become helpless and immobile, as if mired in a bog: On the one hand a threat had been neutralized, but we were bogging down again (1920s+)

Related Abbreviations for bog down

BOG

El Dorado International Airport (Bogotá, Colombia)

Idioms and Phrases with bog down

bog down

Become stuck, be unable to progress, as in Their research bogged down because they lacked the laboratory expertise. This expression transfers sinking into the mud of a swamp to being hampered or halted. [ First half of 1900s ]