bougie

Noun

bougie (plural bougies)

1. (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.
   • 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 12,

     I was not too sure, as a child, what doctors "did," and glimpses of catheters and bougies in their kidney dishes, retractors and speculums, rubber gloves, catgut thread, and forecepts - all this, I think, rather frightened me, though it fascinated me too.

2. A wax candle.

Adjective

bougie (comparative bougier, superlative bougiest)

1. (chiefly African American Vernacular, slang, usually pejorative) Acting as if one is of a higher social status than one is; suspicions regarding true roots and background are implied.
   • 1991, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Season 2, Episode 3, Will Gets a Job, airdate September 23, 1991:

     Hey, look, man, I haven't changed, I'm not gonna change and I'm not down with this bougie stuff.

   • 2007, Satire pervades the series of fictional magazine covers , L. Kent Wolgamott, The Lincoln Journal Star, October 12, 2007, :

     Called “bougie” when she was growing up, even though she’d never considered herself close to that, Ewing has turned the word around, using it as the title of a fictitious magazine she has dreamed up.

   • 2007, "Glamorous" by Fergie:

     I'll be on the movie screens

     Magazines and bougie scenes

     I'm not clean, I'm not pristine

     I'm no queen, I'm no machine

   • 2010, RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 2, Episode 1, Gone With the Window, airdate February 1, 2010:

     Shangela is kind of bougie, but she's also your homegirl.

   • 2010, "Sleazy" by Ke$ha:

     I don't need you or your brand new Benz

     Or your bougie friends

     I don't need love lookin' like diamonds

     Lookin' like diamonds

Derived terms

• bougeoir