Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A slender, flexible, cylindrical instrument that is inserted into a bodily canal, such as the urethra, to dilate, examine, or medicate.
  • noun A wax candle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A wax candle or waxlight.
  • noun A slender cylinder, smooth and flexible, used to dilate or open the rectum, urethra, or esophagus, in cases of stricture or other diseases of those parts.
  • noun A pencil of paraffin or other material which melts at the temperature of the body, with which some medicinal substance has been incorporated: employed for local medication of the urethra, uterus, or other canal into which it is introduced, the melting of the bougie liberating the drug.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Surg.) A long, flexible instrument, that is introduced into the urethra, esophagus, etc., to remove obstructions, or for the other purposes. It was originally made of waxed linen rolled into cylindrical form.
  • noun (Pharm.) A long slender rod consisting of gelatin or some other substance that melts at the temperature of the body. It is impregnated with medicine, and designed for introduction into urethra, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie.
  • adjective slang, sometimes pejorative Acting as if one is of a higher social status than one is; suspicions regarding true roots and background are implied.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, a fine wax, after Bougie , (Bejaïa), a city of northern Algeria.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

After the Algerian city Bougie, and the tapered, hand-dipped candles it made. Compare French bougie ("candle").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From bourgeoisie; compare bourgie.

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Examples

  • They are what you call bougie people, affluent and upwardly mobile.

    Finding Dignity J. Marie Darden 2005

  • They are what you call bougie people, affluent and upwardly mobile.

    Finding Dignity J. Marie Darden 2005

  • The patient swallows several yards of a reliable silk thread a day or two before the proposed dilatation is carried out; the thread is expected to pass through the stricture of the stomach, and to enter for some distance into the small intestine; the metal head of the bougie, which is canalised in its long axis, is "threaded" on the silk, and the latter acting as a guide, the bougie is passed safely and confidently through the stricture.

    Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. Alexander Miles 1893

  • Funny enough I always catch myself acting "bougie" as they call it when I see young blacks acting foolish...then I see white kids doing the same thing and I'm reassured that most of the time, behavior isn't characterized by race but by experience and environment.

    Happy New Year uknaija 2008

  • If classes seem "bougie" hmm, how _would_ you spell that? and mainstream in general, then part of the whole punk/resistant artist/easy-rider-against-the-world persona needs to seem above it all, regardless of whether one really likes the class or not.

    Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2007

  • The "bougie" is a candle, which is charged all over

    Dikes and Ditches Young America in Holland and Belguim Oliver Optic 1859

  • Though she spurned her hometown, and the South Side particularly, as a cradle of bougie Negroes, her ties to that magical city still pulled me in.

    American Girl 2009

  • Gunz lived in King Court with his girlfriend, LoLo—this wannabe bougie bitch going to Essex County College for nursing.

    Real wifeys Meesha Mink 2011

  • Gunz lived in King Court with his girlfriend, LoLo—this wannabe bougie bitch going to Essex County College for nursing.

    Real wifeys Meesha Mink 2011

  • This is, without a doubt, the most bougie event I have ever attended.

    Gingerbread City 2009 « Love | Peace | Ohana 2009

Comments

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  • Short for bourgeois, who apparently have some discreet charm.

    May 15, 2008

  • Like that movie, The Discreet Charm of the Budgie?

    May 15, 2008

  • JM just discovered the other meanings of ‘bougie’ and was overcome by bougie fever.

    April 25, 2011

  • "A pencil of paraffin or other material which melts at the temperature of the body, with which some medicinal substance has been incorporated: employed for local medication of the urethra, uterus, or other canal into which it is introduced, the melting of the bougie liberating the drug."

    --Century Dictionary

    April 24, 2014