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error on the conservative side
Don’t step up unless you goin’ jump.
Apr 24, 2006 11:03
18 yrs ago
English term

beating the bogs

English Art/Literary Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
A scene in a movie.
A woman asks a man about two people who might know what happened to another man who disappeared.

He replies:

They're a couple of half-baked
hooligans out there, beating the bogs,
but they wouldn't know anything.

What does he mean by "beating the bogs" here?

thanks!
Responses
2 +3 trekking through the bogs/searching the area for clues
4 +1 Searching in the undergrowth and bushes
3 +1 getting out of trouble/not getting stuck or bogged down
3 in and out of trouble
2 looking for the body of the drowned/killed man in the bog
1 smashing up public toilets

Discussion

Tony M Apr 24, 2006:
Yes, that would make sense, implying that they're searching the marshes "just in case", but without any specific reason leading them to think the missing person might be there...
Ewa Nowicka (asker) Apr 24, 2006:
on afterthought, yes, he may mean pointless searching waiding through the swamps... thanks everyone!
Ewa Nowicka (asker) Apr 24, 2006:
Peter it's a very small town so I'd go for rural, though the "toilet smashing" idea makes some sense too; I'm afraid the dialogues in this film are bad :( Americans pretending Australians pretending Irish :|
Peter Shortall Apr 24, 2006:
And is it in an urban (where there might be toilets) or rural setting (where there might well be peat bogs)? I'm afraid I don't know what it means but I'm just trying to picture it in my mind!
Ewa Nowicka (asker) Apr 24, 2006:
Hey Jack, yes it is! (though the guy's not Irish at all ;))
Jackie Bowman Apr 24, 2006:
Is the scene in Ireland?

Responses

+3
1 hr
Selected

trekking through the bogs/searching the area for clues

My first thought was "beating" as used in hunting - they "beat" the bushes before they start (shooting, I guess).

I reckon the men are beating a path through the bog with sticks, etc., looking for clues. Maybe scouring the area. Similar to a police search.

Another idea.



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Note added at 1 hr (2006-04-24 12:11:11 GMT)
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Do you have any more info on the two men? Maybe they're searching frantically, thrashing at the undergrowth etc. like lunatics, looking for the man who disappeared.

"Thrashing away", maybe?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2006-04-24 12:13:50 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or are they simply "beating a path"?

To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the
noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of
rousing game.

To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey.
--Prior.


5. To tread, as a path.

Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way.
--Blackmore.
from http://dict.die.net/beat/
Peer comment(s):
agree NancyLynn : thrashing madly through the bogs, in desperation perhaps? I must admit that this is the only thing that came to mind when I saw the Q - but not toilets...
41 mins
:) thanks, NancyLynn
agree Peter Shortall : I have a feeling this could be it - and I wonder if this could be relevant: http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Nonfiction/Biography/Jeffe...
7 hrs
well found! Cheers, Peter
agree juvera : Yes, they are "beating the bogs", as huntsman would to rouse the pray. The text should give a clue somewhere whether they are searching for the missing men or just rabbiting, after all, they are useless huligans, as the guy says.
9 hrs
thanks, juvera
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you and everyone for your help! Glad you too found it a bit tricky ;) I'm out of the woods and no more beating the bogs for me with this one :) Thanks!"
+1
12 mins

getting out of trouble/not getting stuck or bogged down

I haven't heard of this expression before although logically I think it would mean something like this....to not get caught up in anything

bog down, bog: cause to slow down or get stuck; "The vote would bog down the house"
Reference:

http://www.wordreference.com/definition/bog

Peer comment(s):
agree CHEN-Ling
2 hrs
Thanks Minoer...this has really been a great question to get the minds thinking!!!
Something went wrong...
22 mins

looking for the body of the drowned/killed man in the bog

Reading meaning into the context you have provided about one of the man being missing, is it possible that this man has either drowned in the bog, or been killed and thrown into the bog, and the woman and the two men to whom she is talking know something about it, and she is assuring them that the two men "beating the bog" are unlikely to find the body?

This is just a conjencture and more background info will be needed to substantiate it.
Something went wrong...
+1
47 mins

Searching in the undergrowth and bushes

Strictly bog in this case would be in the mud, but here I think they are talking about getting muddy out in the woods searching for the body in the undergrowth and bushes.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 53 mins (2006-04-24 11:56:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or maybe digging up or shoveling in the bog.
Peer comment(s):
agree Jackie Bowman : Seems likely to me. A "bog" (especially in Ireland) means "an area of soft, wet, muddy ground". The two men are searching that area, looking for the body.
19 mins
Thanks Jack
Something went wrong...
27 mins

smashing up public toilets

Well, I AM only guessing, but I think there is a fair chance that here it is the colloquial use of 'bog' = toilet, and 'beating' erefsr to smashing them up, as hooligans are wont to do. Although the use of 'beating' with 'bogs' like this does sound a little odd, I can see the alliterative attraction of it...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2006-04-24 12:19:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Well, given that key extra Irish context, I guess that rather reduces the likelihood of this being correct; glad now I only gave it conf. 1!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2006-04-24 14:10:52 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

'bog' is a very UK expression, Nancy --- I don't think you use it in the US, do you? can, john, etc...
Peer comment(s):
neutral Kim Metzger : Shades of Clockwork Orange?
2 hrs
Thanks, Kim! You see how I've been 'urban brutalized'? Mind you, it was that word 'hooligan' that conjured up the image --- but I think it is only being used figuratively here, don't you?
Something went wrong...
6 hrs

in and out of trouble

I've heard this saying before, but the context is a bit vague. "Beating the bogs" is a bit redneckish, or hillbillyish, and brings to mind scenes of people living near a swamp or other highly rural, dirt clad, farming area (somewhere like that). It brings to mind the teenage of this type of person, a bit like "The Dukes of Hazard", testing the law, hooping and hollering, and making trouble where they can, not to the extent of major crime, but enough to have their noses in everything.

It does not seem to concede that they are actively searching for a body, but would be of the type of character who might have accidentally stumbled across information in their troublemaking, though not likely.
Something went wrong...
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