Definition of "bougie" [bou•gie]

• Medicine A slender, flexible, cylindrical instrument that is inserted into a bodily canal, such as the urethra, to dilate, examine, or medicate. (noun)
• Medicine See suppository. (noun)
• A wax candle. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "They are what you call bougie people, affluent and upwardly mobile."
• "The patient swallows several yards of a reliable silk thread a day or two before the proposed dilatation is carried out; the thread is expected to pass through the stricture of the stomach, and to enter for some distance into the small intestine; the metal head of the bougie, which is canalised in its long axis, is "threaded" on the silk, and the latter acting as a guide, the bougie is passed safely and confidently through the stricture."
• "Funny enough I always catch myself acting "bougie" as they call it when I see young blacks acting foolish...then I see white kids doing the same thing and I'm reassured that most of the time, behavior isn't characterized by race but by experience and environment."