bugbear
See also: bug-bear
Contents
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From obsolete meaning of bug (“something terrifying”) + bear.[1][2] See Middle English bugge, modern bogey.
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbʌɡ.bɛə(ɹ)/, /bɛː(ɹ)/, enPR: ˈbŭg-bâr
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbʌɡ.bɛɚ/, enPR: ˈbŭg-bär
NounEdit
bugbear (plural bugbears)
- An ongoing problem; a recurring obstacle or adversity.
- A source of dread; resentment; or irritation. [from late 16th c.]
- Synonym: pet peeve
- Alexander Pope, Epistle I of the First Book of Horace; to Lord Bolingbroke
- But, to the world no bugbear is so great
- As want of figure and a small estate.
- 1841, Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, chapter 3
- What have I done to be made a bugbear of, and to be shunned and dreaded as if I brought the plague?
- (archaic) An imaginary creature meant to inspire fear in children.
- Synonym: goblin
- 1900, Carl Schurz, For Truth, Justice and Liberty
- The partisans of the Administration object to the word “imperialism,” calling it a mere bugbear having no real existence.
TranslationsEdit
ongoing problem
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source of dread, resentment or irritation
imaginary creature
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See alsoEdit
VerbEdit
bugbear (third-person singular simple present bugbears, present participle bugbearing, simple past and past participle bugbeared)
- (transitive) To alarm with idle phantoms.
ReferencesEdit
- ^ “bugbear” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
- ^ “bugbear” (US) / “bugbear” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.