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

So I thought, well, when I write my book, I’m gonna take the bugaboo out of Chinese cooking and demystify it.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 22, 2022

Still, Grubauer couldn’t stop everything and the old Kraken bugaboo of yielding a goal right after scoring one again reared its ugly head fewer than three minutes after Blackwell’s goal.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 10, 2022

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

“We had little small bugaboos — it wasn’t engines failing,” Mr. Moskowitz said.

From New York Times ● Jun. 10, 2021

Her crazed imagination peopled the forest with weird uncanny things, and fearful tales she told of fays and bugaboos, of spectres and awful voices speaking from out the dank stillness of twilight hollows.

From Prisoners of Hope A Tale of Colonial Virginia by Mary Johnston