English
bugger
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈbʌɡɚ/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈbʌɡə/
Noun

bugger (plural buggers)

  1. (obsolete) A heretic.
  2. (British legal) Someone who commits buggery; a sodomite.
    The British Sexual Offences Act of 1967 is a buggers′ charter.
  3. (slang, pejorative, UK, Australian, NZ) A foolish or worthless person or thing; a despicable person.
    He's a silly bugger for losing his keys.
    The bugger′s given me the wrong change.
    My computer's being a bit of a bugger.
    • 1928, Frank Parker Day, Rockbound, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0500721h ↗,
      “I′ll take it out on dat young bugger,” he thought viciously.
    • 1947, James Hilton, So Well Remembered, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0600371h ↗,
      Here the cheers and shouts of the gallery were interrupted by a shabby little man in the back row who yelled out with piercing distinctness: “Don't matter what you call ′im now, George. The bugger′s dead.”
  4. (slang, UK, Australian, NZ) A situation that causes dismay.
    So you're stuck out in the woop-woop and the next train back is Thursday next week. Well, that's a bit of a bugger.
  5. (slang, UK, Australian, NZ) Someone viewed with affection; a chap.
    How are you, you old bugger?
    • 1946, Olaf Stapledon, Arms Out of Hand, in Collected Stories, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0601341 ↗,
      Good luck, you old bugger!
    • 1953 February-March, Henry Beam Piper, John Joseph McGuire, Null-ABC, in Astounding Science Fiction, Gutenberg eBook #18346 ↗,
      “And if Pelton found out that his kids are Literates—Woooo!” Cardon grimaced. “Or what we've been doing to him. I hope I′m not around when that happens. I′m beginning to like the cantankerous old bugger.”
  6. (slang, dated) A damn, anything at all.
    I don't give a bugger how important you think it is.
  7. (slang, British) Someone who is very fond of something
    I'm a bugger for Welsh cakes.
  8. (slang, USA) A whippersnapper, a tyke.
    What is that little bugger up to now?
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

bugger (buggers, present participle buggering; past and past participle buggered)

  1. (vulgar, British) To sodomize.
    To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore (Attributed to Harry Mclintock's 1920s era Big Rock Candy Mountain)
  2. (slang, coarse in British) To break or ruin.
    This computer is buggered! Oh no! I've buggered it up.
  3. (slang, British, Australian, NZ) To be surprised.
    Bugger me sideways!
    Bugger me, here's my bus.
    Well, I'm buggered!.
    Buggered if I know the answer to that.
  4. (slang, British, Australian, NZ) To feel contempt for some person or thing.
    Bugger Bognor. (Alleged to be the last words of King George V of the United Kingdom in response to a suggestion that he might recover from his illness and visit Bognor Regis.)
  5. (slang, British, Australian, NZ) To feel frustration with something, or to consider that something is futile.
    Bugger this for a lark.
    Bugger this for a game of soldiers.
  6. (slang, British, Australian, NZ) To be fatigued.
    I'm buggered from all that walking.
Translations Translations Interjection
  1. (slang, British, Australia, New Zealand, coarse) An expression of annoyance or displeasure.
    Bugger, I've missed the bus.
Synonyms Translations Noun

bugger (plural buggers)

  1. One who sets a bug (surveillance device); one who bugs.
Related terms
  • buggee


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