boggle

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“
Whenever he found what he called a "boggle"--that is to say an incident or a phrase in respect to which, he was dissatisfied with the conventional explanation--"he could not rest until he had made an effort to get to the bottom of it."

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Definitions (20)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. intransitive verb To hesitate as if in fear or doubt.
  2. intransitive verb To shy away or be overcome with fright or astonishment: "The mind now boggling at all the numbers on the table, both sides agreed to a recess of an hour” (Henry A. Kissinger).
  3. intransitive verb To act ineptly or inefficiently; bungle.
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Examples (50)

  • He knew the power of boggle, a thoroughly overpowering drink, though not from any firsthand experience. —  ASCENDANCE
  • Perhaps it was the boggle, perhaps the mere fact that for so long he had been forced to hide his identity and his exploits. —  ASCENDANCE
  • The boggle-eyed waiter poured us wine practically into her cleavage. —  process 10
  • Steve Jobs 'fesses; bloggers boggle - In Tuesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches Steve Jobs confess he does have a medical condition after all. —  Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now
  • She was studying it with a frown and I assumed she was upset by the boggle-eyed menace of the photo-booth portrait. —  Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS Newsfeed
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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boggle:   boggled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Probably from boggle, dialectal variant of bogle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also bogle, buggel, from boggle = bogle, a specter, with reference to the shying of a horse at unusual objects; cf. Middle English bogelen, occurring but once, in the sense of ‘deny,’ i. e., scare off.
  2. Origin uncertain; perhaps same as boggle, bogle, a scarecrow.
 

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/ˈbɑgl/
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