bogeyman

American  

[boog-ee-man, boh-gee-, boo-] / ˈbʊg iˌmæn, ˈboʊ gi-, ˈbu- /

South Midland and Southern U.S., boogeyman or bogyman

noun

bogeymen plural

1. an imaginary evil character of supernatural powers, especially a mythical hobgoblin supposed to carry off naughty children.

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bogeyman British  

/ ˈbəʊɡɪˌmæn /

noun

1. a person, real or imaginary, used as a threat, esp to children

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bogeymen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bogeyman

First recorded in 1885–90; bogey ¹ (variant of bogy ¹, in the sense “a hobgoblin, evil spirit”) + man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bogeyman bogeymen

Both cast debt as a bogeyman turning capitalism into an extraction device that, left unchecked or unwisely channeled, can take everything from any of us.

From Salon ● May 4, 2026

The third holds that we’ve come a long way in ridding ourselves of racism—particularly of the institutional kind—but stops short of declaring the bogeyman dead.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026

Genetics seems to be the big driver, reinforcing the argument that autism is a normal human variation and there is no Big Pharma bogeyman at the heart of this issue.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2025

The Dodgers served as a convenient bogeyman for owners of many other major league teams last winter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2025

The bogeyman our mothers used to threaten us with when we were slow to finish our meals.

From "Amal Unbound" by Aisha Saeed

But that angst can be projected onto bogeymen.

From Salon ● May 8, 2023

When I hear my students discuss these new tech bogeymen, I’m reminded of the mistakes we’ve made in critiquing the news media.

From Slate ● May 4, 2023

The boss of Iceland said it was "not helpful" to make firms the bogeymen.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2021

And none of this implicates the usual bogeymen of the housing crisis, the big housebuilding companies.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 19, 2019

Maureen, who was four and had a terrible fear of bogeymen, kept dreaming that intruders in Halloween masks were coming through the open doors to get us.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls