bougie
1 Americanadjective
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Sometimes Disparaging. relating to or characteristic of a person who indulges in some of the luxuries and comforts of a fancy lifestyle.
He spends too much on bougie stuff he can’t afford.
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Often Disparaging and Offensive. Also bourgie relating to or characteristic of a person who aspires to the upper middle class, especially when regarded as being elitist or snobbish.
The bougie folks all left the old neighborhood and bought houses out there where their kids'll go to “good schools,” whatever that means.
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relating to or characteristic of a person who flaunts newly acquired wealth without necessarily embracing the cultural values and pretensions of the upper middle class.
that bougie feeling when you’re drinking high-end champagne—out of a red plastic cup.
noun
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bougies
plural
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Medicine/Medical.
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a slender, flexible instrument introduced into passages of the body, especially the urethra, for dilating, examining, medicating, etc.
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a suppository.
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a wax candle.
noun
Sensitivity
Bougie is often used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting, depending on the cultural or social context of its use. It originated as slang in the African American community, used disparagingly to describe wealthier or upwardly mobile people, usually other Black people, who were seen to be socially pretentious. It is now also used as a term of mild censure, referring in general to people who have expensive tastes.
Usage
Spelling tips for bougie The slang term bougie comes from a shortening and alteration of the word bourgeois, which is even harder to remember how to spell. How to spell bougie: Bougie is also sometimes spelled boujee, boujie, and boojie, but bougie is the most common spelling. Boogie is a different word altogether. To remember the vowel sequences in bougie (o-u, i-e), just remember this question: “Oh, you think I’m bougie, i.e. too fancy?”
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bougie1
An Americanism dating back to 1965–70; shortening and alteration of bourgeois 1 ( def. )
Origin of bougie2
First recorded in 1745–55; from French, after Bougie (from Arabic Bujāyah ), town in Algeria, center of the wax trade
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In years past, Aylesworth, who considers herself “a very bougie person,” would only eat caviar at restaurants on special occasions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
I spent more than 12 hours learning—visiting New York clubs and a “mahjong retreat” in Connecticut that was exactly as bougie as it sounds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
I didn’t mind paying the fee, but I wonder if it would be worth it to get the bougie card to have year-round access.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 20, 2026
"And all the whilst he was doing this, he was going on like really crazy bougie holidays and spending crazy amounts of money that probably wasn't his."
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025
Do some bougie shit with my bougie girl.”
From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi
For the use of bougies of the larger sizes, the special esophagoscopes with both the light-carrier canal and the drainage canal outside the lumen of the tube are needed.
From Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery by Chevalier Jackson
Treatment of Pulsion Diverticulum.—If the pouch is small, the subdiverticular esophageal orifice may be dilated with esophagoscopic bougies, thus overcoming the etiologic factor of spastic or organic stenosis.
From Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery by Chevalier Jackson
Seventy bougies occasioned this, with the number of persons all adding to the heat of the room.
From George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life by E. S. Roscoe
The physician is sometimes tempted to overcome the spasmodic closure or partial closure of the esophagus by bougies and dilators, and these the patients learn to pass by themselves.
From Psychotherapy by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
It was one of those abominable bougies with holes in them to economise the wax, and which consequently had less than the proper amount of material for feeding and maintaining a flame.
From A Book of Ghosts by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
