boggle

[ bog-uhl ]

See synonyms for boggle on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object),bog·gled, bog·gling.

to overwhelm or bewilder, as with magnitude, complexity, or strangeness: The speed of light boggles the mind.
to bungle; botch.

verb (used without object),bog·gled, bog·gling.

to hesitate or waver because of scruples, fear, etc.
to start or jump with fear, alarm, or surprise; shrink; shy.

to bungle awkwardly.
to be overwhelmed or bewildered.

noun

an act of shying or taking alarm.
a mess; a bungle or botch.

Archaic. a scruple; demur; hesitation.

Origin of boggle

First recorded in 1590–1600; perhaps from bogle

Other words from boggle

bog·gling·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use boggle in a sentence

How in the world this becomes a test case for the other side just boggles the mind.
The Voting Rights Act and the Court | Michael Tomasky | February 28, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
This is a level of inhumanity that frankly boggles my mind and makes me ill.
On African Refugees and Jewish Heartlessness | Emily L. Hauser | September 21, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
The over-reaction, the lack of professionalism, the random sadism of this boggles the mind.
UC Davis Suspends Pepper-Spray Cops (Video) | | November 20, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
The velocity and density of everything just boggles my mind.
The David Foster Wallace Generation | Seth Colter Walls | April 7, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
The mind boggles at what Dame Everage would make of that line.
Dame Edna Mouths Off | Kevin Sessums | March 17, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST

It takes up about eighty thousand lines, A thing imagination boggles at; And might, odds-bobs, sir!
The Book of Humorous Verse | Various
But here is what neither Papist nor Puritan, latitudinarian nor precisian, ever boggles or makes mouths at.
Kenilworth | Sir Walter Scott
It's a devilish good thing for you to have something your imagination boggles at.
The Belovd Vagabond | William J. Locke
Perhaps there is something above Sontres;—but this imagination boggles at.
Northern Spain | Edgar T. A. Wigram
No parsimony is so ill-judged as that which boggles at the outlay of an election.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851 | Various

British Dictionary definitions for boggle

boggle

/ (ˈbɒɡəl) /

verb(intr often foll by at)

to be surprised, confused, or alarmed (esp in the phrase the mind boggles)
to hesitate or be evasive when confronted with a problem

(tr) to baffle; bewilder; puzzle

Origin of boggle

C16: probably variant of bogle 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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