English Reference

Word

booger

UK/bˈʊɡɐ/

Definition

n. a piece of dried mucus that comes out of your nose. It is a very casual and slightly rude word for this.

n. a dried mass of mucus found in the nasal cavity. Highly informal and considered vulgar in most professional or polite contexts.

Examples

“He had a booger hanging out of his nose.”

“The child was told to stop picking his nose and throwing the boogers on the floor.”

“While the term is common in playground speech, using the word booger in a formal medical report would be entirely inappropriate and likely lead to a reprimand.”

Examples

simple

“He had a booger hanging out of his nose.”

contextual

“The child was told to stop picking his nose and throwing the boogers on the floor.”

complex

“While the term is common in playground speech, using the word booger in a formal medical report would be entirely inappropriate and likely lead to a reprimand.”

Etymology

Alteration of the English dialectal words buggard (bug + -ard), boggart or boggard. Compare bogey. Compare also Alemannic German Naaseböög (“booger”).

From boogie board + -er.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry

Level
C2 · Proficiency
Frequency
Occasional
Updated

Scan code

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English Reference