booger

American  

[boog-er] / ˈbʊg ər /

noun

1. Informal. any person or thing.

   That shark was a mean-looking booger. Paddle the little booger and send him home.

2. Slang. a piece of dried mucus in or from the nose.

3. bogeyman.

4. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. any ghost, hobgoblin, or other frightening apparition.

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Etymology

Origin of booger

1865–70; perhaps variant of British dialect boggard goblin, bogy; in senses of booger defs. 1, 2 conflated with bugger ¹

Example Sentences

“Space Babies,” the first of two episodes premiering Friday, features talking infants in an abandoned space station and is powered by booger and fart jokes.

From Los Angeles Times • May 10, 2024

"In the studio, all together, sweaty, smelly, dusty, picking a booger, whatever, singing when it was my turn, that sort of thing for six, eight weeks. That's gruelling."

From BBC • Sep. 6, 2019

Lawmakers pitched a booger, of course, and bow-tie wearing Tony Williams was given control of the city’s finances, and eventually became a two-term mayor.

From Washington Times • Mar. 11, 2019

In fact, I told them, I only came up with the booger story after asking myself: What if a family picked their noses so much that they create a monstrous booger?

From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2017

"If you ain't no booger, but you had to be something else, what would you be?"

From "Look Both Ways" by Jason Reynolds