bugbear

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“
If there was money to be paid, there was a bugbear to be slain for it; and a bugbear is as obnoxious to the repose of commercial communities as rivals are to kings.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A bugaboo.
  2. noun A fearsome imaginary creature, especially one evoked to frighten children.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • The word “constitution” was his bugbear, and he would not abate one particular of his absolute power, or tolerate the slightest deflection of his authority in his family, any more than in the principality. —  The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume II
  • But the bugbear was her size, and it was close; it knew exactly how to terrify her. —  Dragon on a Pedestal
  • My personal bugbear is the Typhoid Mary who insists on coming in despite the fact that they are crawling with more germs than a petri dish at Porton Down. —  Blogposts | guardian.co.uk
  • Unlike Germany, where the bugbear is blinkered expertise, Iceland's problem is dilettantism. —  signandsight.com
  • Another bugbear, this time of commuters: The relatively bigger increase in single-trip fares once distance-based throughfares are rolled out. —  TODAYonline
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

bugaboo ·  guff ·  bogie ·  spectre ·  hoodoo
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Obsolete bug, hobgoblin (from Middle English bugge, perhaps from Welsh bwg) + bear2.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from bug + bear; a hobgoblin in the shape of a bear. See quotation from Chaucer under bug. The formation has ceased to be felt; Evelyn spells the word bugbare. Cf. bullbeggar.
  2. from bugbear, n.
 

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/ˈbəgbɛr/
by American Heritage

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