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

When one coral Furby managed to understand that I was there, it asked if it had a booger, told me it would become “president of the moon,” and sang me a generic Auto-Tuned song.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 29, 2023

“It’s worse than the grossest booger you’ve ever seen,” Dr. Choy said.

From New York Times • Apr. 3, 2022

Cookie Monster: Me guess it not easy being color of booger.

From Washington Post • Apr. 2, 2020

"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

If Papa hadn’t been with me I would have answered him by saying, “I am the booger man. I’m coming to get you.”

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls