bugaboo

American  

[buhg-uh-boo] / ˈbʌg əˌbu /

noun

bugaboos plural

1. something that causes fear or worry; bugbear; bogy.

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bugaboo British  

/ ˈbʌɡəˌbuː /

noun

1. an imaginary source of fear; bugbear; bogey

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bugaboos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bugaboo

1730–40; earlier buggybow. See bogy ¹, boo ¹

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bugaboo bugaboos

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

Market risk, or principal risk is the potential for the stock and bond markets to kick you in the teeth, and it’s the big bugaboo for most investors.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 20, 2022

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

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

But the real bugaboos in fixed income are volatility, stubborn inflation, and higher interest rates.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

But they really seem sincere about their bugaboos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

And there's an intelligence in that rendering, as if she admirably recognizes that she doesn't want her kids to inherit her bugaboos.

From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2023

The category of “people we can make fun of” includes the obvious targets — celebrities, royals and politicians, The New York Times — as well as left-wing Twitter bugaboos Glenn Greenwald and Thomas Chatterton Williams.

From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2021

This phrase in Katie's nursery had taken the time-honored place of bugaboos, and hobgoblins, and men under the bed.

From A Biography of Sidney Lanier by Mims, Edwin