bog down

phrasal verb

bogged down; bogging down; bogs down
1
: to cause (something) to sink in wet ground
The mud bogged down the car.
The car got bogged down in the mud.
often used figuratively
It's easy to get bogged down in details.
2
: to become stuck in wet ground
The car bogged down in the mud.
often used figuratively
The story bogs down after the second chapter.

Examples of bog down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Others said the visa change will bog down the backlog of immigrants waiting for green cards and were skeptical that the federal government could get through hundreds of thousands of applications before the election and possible administration change. Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 19 June 2024 That would cause public confidence in them to tank, which could bog down on-site solar and renewables ramp-up. Jon M. Williams, New York Daily News, 26 May 2024 Cellular networks sometimes bog down when people in one place all call, text, stream or post at once — like at a packed football game or, in this case, an opportunity to view a potentially once-in-a-lifetime total solar eclipse. Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2024 Extensive hunts for discovery material could bog down prosecutors’ time and resources, or find information showing unfairness toward their client, or simply cause major delays to the trial process. Devlin Barrett, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 Should Hamas continue to bog down the Israeli military, its support among the Palestinian people could rise. Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Nov. 2023 Many urban invasions — from the Middle Ages to modernity — have started off with a rapid advance, only to later bog down in districts that favor defenders. Damien Cave, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2023 But despite the risks, those enmeshed in the financial industry, like Abbott from Accenture, hope that products like IBM’s or GitHub’s can untangle the spaghetti code that so often bogs down big banks. Ben Weiss, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2023 The group’s newest proclamation threatens to bog down negotiations over a continuing resolution that would provide temporary funding between the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 and the pending enactment of the 2024 fiscal year budget. Svetlana Shkolnikova Stars and Stripes (tns), al, 25 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bog down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Bog down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bog%20down. Accessed 2 Jul. 2024.

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