bugbear
any source, real or imaginary, of needless fright or fear.
a persistent problem or source of annoyance.
Folklore. a goblin that eats up naughty children.
Origin of bugbear
1Words Nearby bugbear
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use bugbear in a sentence
They swatted aside the Jackets, their bugbear from a season ago, and the Bruins — the team that appeared most equipped to give them trouble in the East — like so many mosquitos, needing just five games to beat each of them.
The Tampa Bay Lightning Finally Delivered On Their Stanley Cup Potential | Terrence Doyle | September 29, 2020 | FiveThirtyEightThey asked him if he was president of the Union League - a particular bugbear for the Klan because it sought to organize freedmen.
Will constitutional-law professors replace community organizers and the French as the right's latest bugbear?
Mitt Romney Mocks Barack Obama for Teaching the Constitution | Ben Jacobs | March 21, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTSo that fastidious snuff-takers may dismiss this bugbear at once and forever.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce | E. R. Billings.The chest was soon filled with quilts and that bugbear was gone from her life.
Patchwork | Anna Balmer Myers
A mere bugbear to frighten children, believe me; and never yet alarmed a brave man.
Rookwood | William Harrison AinsworthAs for the Tennessee land, so long a will-o'the-wisp and a bugbear, it became tangible property at last.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete | Albert Bigelow PaineThis bogie, phantom, bugbear, is a supposed influence called "Reaction."
British Dictionary definitions for bugbear
/ (ˈbʌɡˌbɛə) /
a thing that causes obsessive fear or anxiety
(in English folklore) a goblin said to eat naughty children and thought to be in the form of a bear
Origin of bugbear
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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