An area having a wet, spongy, acidic substrate composed chiefly of sphagnum moss and peat in which characteristic shrubs and herbs and sometimes trees usually grow.
Any of certain other wetland areas, such as a fen, having a peat substrate. Also called peat bog.
An area of soft, naturally waterlogged ground.
v.
bogged, bog·ging, bogs
v.
tr. To cause to sink in or as if in a bog: We worried that the heavy rain across the prairie would soon bog our car. Don't bog me down in this mass of detail. v.
intr. To be hindered and slowed.
[Irish Gaelic bogach, from bog, soft; see bheug- in Indo-European roots.] bog'gi·ness n., bog'gy adj.
bog (bôg) Pronunciation Key
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.