bugaboo
Americannoun
plural
bugaboosnoun
Etymology
Origin of bugaboo
Explanation
Use the noun bugaboo to describe something that causes worry, like the bugaboo of having three tests on the same day at school. Bugaboo is also another name for the creature known as the bogeyman, an imaginary monster that children believe will hurt them or even take them away if they don't behave. Some usage experts trace bugaboo to Scotland, where the now-obsolete word bogill meant "goblin, bugbear." A bugbear, in the 1580 coining of the word, was a demon that looked like a bear and ate small children.
Vocabulary lists containing bugaboo
Beowulf: A New Telling
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Vocabulary from "D.F.W.'s Favorite Grammarian"
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The Testaments
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the latest bugaboo from the banking lobby is the possibility of other companies rewarding customers for using stablecoins.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 9, 2025
And despite getting Anthony Rizzo to pop up for the second out, the long-ball bugaboo bit him against Volpe.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 29, 2024
To wit: a literal — if incorporeal — bugaboo, the kind that has plagued and marred many an otherwise impeccable, even artful, horror film, as this one is.
From Washington Post • Aug. 17, 2021
Quarterback has been the Broncos’ biggest bugaboo since winning Super Bowl 50 in Hall of Famer Peyton Manning’s farewell game — they haven’t been back to the playoffs since.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 29, 2021
McMillan and Alvarez returned from Los Alamos impatient to try out new approaches they had conceived to address that old bugaboo, the relativistic barrier to higher energies.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
