Definition of "boggle" in English

verb

1. (transitive or intransitive) (literally or figuratively) 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.

2. (intransitive) To be bewildered, dumbfounded, or confused.

   • He boggled at the surprising news.
   • The mind boggles.
   • 1795, Mary Wollstonecraft, letter to Gilbert Imlay dated 4 October, 1795, in Mary Wollstonecraft: Letters to Imlay, London: Kegan Paul, 1879, p. 182, From the tenour of your last letter however, I am led to imagine, that you have formed some new attachment.—If it be so, let me earnestly request you to see me once more, and immediately. This is the only proof I require of the friendship you profess for me. I will then decide, since you boggle about a mere form.

3. (transitive) 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.

4. (US, dialect) To embarrass with difficulties; to palter or equivocate; to bungle or botch

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To dissemble; to play fast and loose (with someone or something).

6. (intransitive, of a rat) To wiggle the eyes as a result of bruxing.

noun

1. (dated) A scruple or objection.

2. (dated) A bungle; a botched situation.

noun

1. Alternative form of bogle.