Boggart
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Alternative spelling of boggard (A bogey, a ghost) alt-of, alternative
"OH! Maeſter—ſtrange things late I've ſeen— / And oft has boggart-haunted been ! / I'm ſure I's falt when ſtory's-tauld, / 'Till blude run aw' through veins ſo cauld !"
- 2 A shapeshifting monster that feeds on fear.
""A boogeyman," I said. "Sometimes known as a boggle or a boggart. It's a weak form of phobophage - a fear-eater, mostly insubstantial.""
Example
More examples"OH! Maeſter—ſtrange things late I've ſeen— / And oft has boggart-haunted been ! / I'm ſure I's falt when ſtory's-tauld, / 'Till blude run aw' through veins ſo cauld !"
Etymology
As a monster that feeds on fear, coined by British novelist J. K. Rowling in 1999 in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
More for "boggart"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.