moss-hag
A Scottish term for a treacherous pit, hollow, or waterlogged slough in a peat bog — the kind of soft, sucking ground that can swallow a boot whole and has claimed the unwary for centuries.
Definitions
A Scottish term for a treacherous pit, hollow, or waterlogged slough in a peat bog — the kind of soft, sucking ground that can swallow a boot whole and has claimed the unwary for centuries. Moss-hags are features of the Scottish uplands and the accounts of travellers, soldiers, and farmers who learned to read the ground carefully to avoid them. The term appears in Scottish literature and landscape writing as shorthand for wild, dangerous, uncultivated terrain.
The soldiers had to abandon the direct route across the moor because it was riddled with moss-hags hidden beneath the heather.
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(Scotland) A pit or slough in a bog.
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- haugh65%
(Scotland, Northern England, Ireland) A low-lying meadow by the side of a river.
- bogging64%
Scottish slang that covers the full spectrum of gross: something bogging can be putrid, filthy, revolting, or just deeply unpleasant. It's used to describe bad smells, horrible food, unhygienic conditions, or anything that triggers a visceral disgust response. Versatile and emphatic, bogging punches harder than 'minging' and is a staple of Scottish everyday speech — especially effective when delivered with full disdain. Often used as a stand-alone exclamation when words otherwise fail.
- featherbed62%
(especially, UK, Dartmoor) An area of bog where a layer of moss covers a pool of water or mud, presenting a hazard to walkers who may fall through it. (Also in UK and Irish placenames.).
- hog wallow62%
(US) A shallow depression denuded of vegetation and potentially muddy, created by the wallowing of hogs.