Also 6 buggell, 7 bogle. [app. f. boggle, var. of BOGLE a spectre, (such as horses are reputed to see). In later times there has been a tendency to associate the word with bungle, which appears in sense 4, and in the derivatives.]
1. intr. To start with fright, to shy as a startled horse; to take alarm, be startled, scared at.
1598. Chapman, Iliad, X. 420. They [steeds] should not with affright Boggle, nor snore.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, V. iii. 232. You boggle shrewdly, euery feather starts you.
1638. Suckling, Brennoralt, IV. i. 35. Thou … boglest at every thing, foole.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., xiv. 221/1. Balaam … spurs on his conscience (that boggl’d more than the Asse he rode on).
1678. R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1702), 426. We Boggle at our own Shadows, and Fright one another.
1769. Wesley, in Wks. (1872), III. 373. The shaft-horse then boggled and turned short toward the edge of the precipice.
1865. Miss Braddon, Doctor’s Wife, x. 93. Boggling a little when she turned the corners.
2. To raise scruples, hesitate, demur, stickle (at, occas. about, over, etc., or to do a thing).
a. 1638. Mede, Wks., I. xxxvii. (1672), 202. A Sound and Loyal heart is not that which boggles and scruples at small sins.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 241. I find the Parliament still bogling about the raising of this money.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xxxix. § 13 (1689), 287. They would not bogle to give 1000 sesterces.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Josephus’ Ant., V. x. (1733), 125. He never shrunk or boggled for the matter.
a. 1734. North, Exam., II. iv. ¶ 115. He boggled at first against testifying at all.
1798. Mary Wollstonecr., Posth. Wks., IV. lxviii. 8. Since you boggle about a mere form.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., IX. 1378. Nor do thou Boggle, oh parent, to return the grace.
1876. Green, Short Hist., vi. § 6, 336. One, who was known to have boggled hard at the oath.
3. ‘To play fast or loose’ J.; to palter, quibble, equivocate.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 219. He doth boggle very often.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Skiamachia, Wks. (1711), 199. Are ye not afraid to boggle thus with God Almighty?
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1704), III. XI. 206. He boggled so much in his answer, that they would be of opinion that [etc.].
1816. Hazlitt, Modern Apost., in Pol. Ess. (1819), 142. They … have never sneaked nor shuffled, botched or boggled, in their politics.
4. To fumble, bungle, make a clumsy attempt.
[1536. Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 373. If I have one there to help me, I shall do the more good; if not I shall buggell myself as well as I can.]
1853. Miss E. S. Sheppard, Ch. Auchester, II. 9. He boggled at the lock for a minute or two, but at last admitted himself.
1880. L. Stephen, Pope, vii. 169. He uses only one epithet, but it is the right one, and never boggles and patches.
† 5. trans. To cause to hesitate, to scare. rare.
1663. Flagellum or O. Cromwell (1672), 155. This bogled at first three quarters of them.
