Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Vulgar Slang A sodomite.
- n. Slang A contemptible or disreputable person.
- n. Slang A fellow; a chap: "He's a silly little bugger, then” ( John le Carré).
- v. To practice sodomy.
- v. To practice sodomy with.
- v. To damn.
- bugger off Chiefly British Slang To leave someone alone; go away.
- n. One who installs electronic bugs.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One guilty of the crime of bestiality: vulgarly used as a general term of contumely, without reference to its meaning.
- n. A collector of bugs or insects; an entomologist.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete A heretic.
- n. Someone who commits buggery; a sodomite.
- n. slang, pejorative, UK, Australia, New Zealand A foolish or worthless person or thing; a despicable person.
- n. slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand A situation that causes dismay.
- n. slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand Someone viewed with affection; a chap.
- n. slang, dated A damn, anything at all.
- n. slang, UK Someone who is very fond of something
- n. slang, USA - West A rough synonym for whippersnapper.
- v. vulgar, UK To sodomize.
- v. slang To break or ruin.
- v. slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand To be surprised.
- v. slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand To feel contempt for some person or thing.
- v. slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand To feel frustration with something, or to consider that something is futile.
- v. slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand To be fatigued.
- interj. slang, UK, Australia, New Zealand, vulgar An expression of annoyance or displeasure.
- interj. slang, US, euphemistic, rare Cutesy expression of very mild annoyance.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One guilty of buggery or unnatural vice; a sodomite.
- n. Low A wretch; -- sometimes used humorously or in playful disparagement.
WordNet 3.0
- v. practice anal sex upon
- n. someone who engages in anal copulation (especially a male who engages in anal copulation with another male)
Etymologies
- From French bougre, from Medieval Latin Bulgarus ("Bulgarian"), used in designation of heretics to whom various unnatural practices were ascribed. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English bougre, heretic, from Old French boulgre, from Medieval Latin Bulgarus; see Bulgar. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“If you are just starting out, and haven't mastered the subtlties, a wooly bugger is a good alla round fly to start out with.”
“Women have to carry the child for 9 months, so they better make sure the little bugger is well cared for.”
“But wait, that bugger is gone already, Too bad, so sad.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Would “Deem & Pass” Survive Judicial Review?
“That little bugger is home for a day or two wrapping up some things and moi get to see him. ciao”
“What a disgusting SOB that bugger is … has always been, far as that goes.”
“The bugger is that these two songs sat side by side on the same album.”
“(Seriously, the little bugger is getting far too close to my Rexona zone) … being the chronically envious type that I am, afflicted by that greenest of the seven deadly sins …”
“Because of the action of the long flowing tail the bugger is more popular with fisherman.”
“Yes | No | Report from Visitor wrote 2 years 1 week ago that other deer is a gnarly lookin bugger”
“A stonefly bugger is one fly you always want to buy, what a pain it is to make those!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bugger’.
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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funny & derogatory
WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
funny derogatory names, quotes, phrases.
( open list, randomness, ad hom, ad hominem )
also see:
buttfucking quitter, dirty sanchez, donkey punch, falcon punch, assbadger, unicorn turd, assclown, fudgenut, quackery, friggin homo, buttmuncher, jackwagon and 292 more... -
Situation Normal
inspired by Mistakes Were Made. Words for things going wrong in a manner particularly violent, stupid, soul-crushing, boggling, grandiose, or any combination of these qualities.
fuckup, snafu, fiasco, abortion, miscarriage, implosion, contretemps, imbroglio, brouhaha, melee, kerfuffle, mayhem and 156 more...
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"Queen's" English
Collection of words from Old Blighty
sorted, sketchy, mate, oi, innit, ol' chum, brilliant, wicked, arse, bloody, bollocks, wanker and 12 more...
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britishisms
A tip of my hat to the snarkiest of English dialects. Here here!
Ponce, snog, bloody, barmy, blasted, blooming, bleeding, knackered, poppycock, wanker, tosser, cracked and 52 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
Scribble, Newfangled, swift, swathe, budget, obstreperous, trickle, rank, covetous, scratch, hunch, dodge and 179 more...
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mager's Words
enigmatic, pragmatic, pulchritudinous, nincompoop, annihilation, sociality, entailment, acrosome, egalitarian, culture, technocracy, shenanigan and 541 more...
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AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
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Maineisms
Some of these were taken from older literature and have fallen out of use in the past few decades, but many are still used today in the same way they were used a century ago. By no means a compreh...
Yankeedom, wizzled, wing and wing, wickie-up, whiffletree, weewaw, wangan, wainy, upstair, twice-laid, tunket, trig and 136 more...
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Words I will probably never use
décolleté, pendragon, amerce, viviparous, dragoon, brigand, outlaw, outlawry, lugubrious, boor, contretemps, decrepit and 167 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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booknerd's Words
frenetic, elite, kiss, grip, flesh, sugar, ciao, occult, copious, antiquated, drawl, lush and 101 more...
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Tamara's Words
ennui, je ne sais quoi, libertine, dilettante, raconteur, awry, nerdy, ridiculousness, cinnamon, snarky, somnambulist, truthiness and 101 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bugger.

ruzuzu Poor little guys? Oct 25, 2010
yarb blighter is Brit too isn't it?
If it's boys, maybe mites or tykes?
Tough one. Oct 25, 2010
bilby the poor blighters Oct 25, 2010
chained_bear Okay, I know what this word means according to dictionaries, but when a mother says it of her young, rambunctious boys (for example), that's certainly NOT the meaning she's ascribing.
I'm looking for a synonym in the phrase "the poor buggers," that doesn't use the original word I was thinking of ("bastards") and does not sound British ("sods"). Any suggestions?
I also found this interesting conversation. Oct 25, 2010
yarb (liquor buggers us,
nathless 'Human kind
cannot bear very
much reality')...
- Peter Reading, 5x5x5x5x5, 1983 Jul 4, 2008