Part 727

||Boer (&?;), n. [D., a farmer. See Boor.] A colonist or farmer in South Africa of Dutch descent.

Bo"es (&?;), 3d sing. pr. of Behove. Behoves or behooves. [Obs.] Chaucer.

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.

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.

Bog"ber`ry (&?;), n. (Bot.) The small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus), which grows in boggy places.

Bo"gey (&?;), n. A goblin; a bugbear. See Bogy.

Bog"gard (&?;), n. A bogey. [Local, Eng.]

Bog"gle (&?;), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Boggled (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Boggling (&?;).] [ See Bogle, n.] 1. To stop or hesitate as if suddenly frightened, or in doubt, or impeded by unforeseen difficulties; to take alarm; to exhibit hesitancy and indecision.

We start and boggle at every unusual appearance. Glanvill.

Boggling at nothing which serveth their purpose. Barrow.

2. To do anything awkwardly or unskillfully.

3. To play fast and loose; to dissemble. Howell.

Syn. -- To doubt; hesitate; shrink; stickle; demur.

Bog"gle, v. t. To embarrass with difficulties; to make a bungle or botch of. [Local, U. S.]

Bog"gler (&?;), n. One who boggles.

Bog"glish (&?;), a. Doubtful; skittish. [Obs.]

Bog"gy (&?;), a. Consisting of, or containing, a bog or bogs; of the nature of a bog; swampy; as, boggy land.

Bo"gie (&?;), n. [A dialectic word. N. of Eng. & Scot.] A four-wheeled truck, having a certain amount of play around a vertical axis, used to support in part a locomotive on a railway track.

Bo"gle (&?;), n. [Scot. and North Eng. bogle, bogill, bugill, specter; as a verb, to terrify, fr. W. bwgwl threatening, fear, bwg, bwgan, specter, hobgoblin. Cf. Bug.] A goblin; a specter; a frightful phantom; a bogy; a bugbear. [Written also boggle.]

Bog"suck`er (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) The American woodcock; -- so called from its feeding among the bogs.

Bog"trot`ter (&?;), n. One who lives in a boggy country; -- applied in derision to the lowest class of Irish. Halliwell.

Bog"trot`ting (&?;), a. Living among bogs.

Bogue (&?;), v. i. (Naut.) To fall off from the wind; to edge away to leeward; -- said only of inferior craft.