bog n JOYCE 218 'what is called in England a "peat moss" ' for sense 1; for comb in sense 3: DC bog-apple obs (N S: 1823); DAE bog meadow (1749).
   1 Peat, esp removed from marsh-land and used for improving garden soils; also attrib.
   1841 PANL GN 2/2 June-Dec, p. 7 The morass from which 'Bogstuff is obtained... 1870 Stewart's Qtly iv (2), p. 17 With the exception of the trifling portion of this offal that is mixed with bog and applied to the land in Newfoundland, the whole is lost without utility. 1974 MANNION 62 Normally over 40 loads were hauled by slide to the 'bog pit' out on the farm. One load of [fish] offal was mixed with 5 loads of bog and clay.
   2 Proverb first in the wood, but last in the bog
   [advice to travellers].
   [1794] 1968 THOMAS 103 First in the wood, but always last in the Bog, Mr Thomas! Now I will lead the way if you will follow.
   3 Attrib, comb bog-apple: cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus); BAKEAPPLE.
   [1822] 1856 CORMACK 13 The prevalent plants are ... bog apple [etc]. 1966 SCAMMELL 139 Bakeapple (bog-apple). 1969 HORWOOD 102 [The expatriate] remembers ... the bakeapples (bog apples, cloudberries) that he picked from the Witless Bay marshes.
   bog lily: orchid with white flower (Platanthera dilatata) (1956 ROULEAU 27).
   bog meadow: an open stretch of grassy marshland.
   1895 TOCQUE 294 In some places the 'bog meadows' are very productive, producing large quantities of natural grass.
   bog-nut: rush-like plant of the horsetail family, common in marshes (Equisetum palustre) (1956 ROULEAU 27).

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