Meaning & use
boogered up
Last updated
“boogered up” is a form of “booger up”.
Meanings
adjectivenot comparableinformalslangAmerican
Badly damaged, broken, or messed up, especially in a way that is annoying or hard to fix.
Grammar: Used after a linking verb like 'be' or 'get': 'The car is boogered up.' It is not usually used before a noun.
Patterns
- be boogered up
- get boogered up
My knee got all boogered up when I fell off my bike.
The printer is boogered up again, so we can't print anything.
He tried to fix the sink himself, but now it's really boogered up.
verbtransitiveinformalslangAmerican
To damage or ruin something badly, especially by doing it carelessly.
Grammar: Often used as a phrasal verb: 'booger up something' or 'booger something up.' The past tense is 'boogered up.'
Patterns
- booger up something
- booger something up
I boogered up the recipe by adding too much salt.
Don't let him booger up the whole project.
Word forms
| base form | booger up |
|---|---|
| third person singular | boogers up |
| past tense | boogered up |
| past participle | boogered up |
| -ing form | boogering up |
Common combinations
- get boogered up
- My phone got boogered up when I dropped it in the pool.
- booger up the works
- A single error can booger up the works for everyone.
- all boogered up
- The schedule is all boogered up after the snowstorm.
Synonyms and how they differ
- messed up
- This is a more common and less crude way to say the same thing; it is safer in most situations.
- broken
- Broken simply means not working; boogered up often adds the idea that someone caused the damage clumsily.
- screwed up
- This is similar in tone but can be considered vulgar by some speakers, so it is not always a polite substitute.
Opposites
Word family
- booger noun
- A slang word for a piece of dried mucus from the nose; also used informally for a troublesome person or thing.
Commonly confused: boogered up or buggered up?
boogered up vs buggered up
This British slang has a similar meaning but is considered vulgar and is much stronger; 'boogered up' is milder and mainly American.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'boogered up' correctly?
Choose one answer.
As a verb, 'booger up' means to damage or ruin something, so B is correct. An and D are wrong because the adjective 'boogered up' is not usually used before a noun; C is wrong because it describes an emotion, not damage.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “boogered up”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.