boggle
to stop or hesitate as if suddenly seeing a bogle.
Noun dated
- A scruple or objection.
- A bungle; a botched situation.
Origin
Variation or derivation of bogle, possibly cognate with bug.
Forms
Noun alt of, alternative
- Alternative form of bogle.
Forms
Verb
- to stop or hesitate as if suddenly seeing a bogle.
- The dogs went on, but the horse boggled at the sudden appearance of the strange beast.
- The horror of the deed and its consequences boggle the imagination.
- You boggle shrewdly, every feather starts you […] - c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:...
- To be bewildered, dumbfounded, or confused.
- He boggled at the surprising news.
- The mind boggles.
- […] we start and boggle at what is unusual: and like the Fox in the fable at his first view of the Lyon, we cannot endure the sight of the Bug-bear, Novelty. - 1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter 14, in The Vanity of...
- To confuse or mystify; overwhelm.
- The vastness of space really boggles the mind.
- The oddities of quantum mechanics can boggle the minds of students and experienced physicists alike.
- For a moment he marvelled at the vastness of the toe-sized teats boggling him, then he stuttered, ‘Goo’ bye.’ - 1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 110:
- To embarrass with difficulties; to palter or equivocate; to bungle or botch
- To dissemble; to play fast and loose (with someone or something).
- I would be loth to exchange consciences with them, and boggle so with God Almighty; but these men by a new kind of Metaphysick have found out a way to abstract the Person of the King from his Office to make his...
- To wiggle the eyes as a result of bruxing.
Forms
Derived
boggle-eyed boggler bogglesome bogglingly bogglish croggle mind-boggling