▪ I. bugbear
(ˈbʌgbɛə(r))
Forms: 6–7 buggebeare, 7– bugbear.
[App. f. bug n.1 + bear n.1]
† 1. A sort of hobgoblin (presumably in the shape of a bear) supposed to devour naughty children; hence, generally, any imaginary being invoked by nurses to frighten children. Obs.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 10 b, Hobgoblines and Buggebeares, with whom we were never acquaynted. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (1842) 74 Meare bugge-beares to scare boyes. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 353 Certain Lamiæ..which like Bug-bears would eat up crying boys. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. xii. 55. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 11 ¶9 To tell children of bugbears and goblins. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg. (1877) 10 The bugbear behind him is after him still. |
2. transf. An object of dread, esp. of needless dread; an imaginary terror. In weakened senses: an annoyance, bane, thorn in the flesh.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. 317 At the worst it is but a bugbeare. 1642 Rogers Naaman To Rdr. §2 All that thinke originall sinne a bugbeare. 1717 Kennett in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 430 IV. 306 The king of Sweden is every day a less bugbear to us. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop iii. 14 What have I done to be made a bugbear of? 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xvii. 51 Confiscation, a word which is so frightful a bugbear to most modern ears. 1880 Geo. Eliot Let. 14 Sept. (1956) VII. 322 Our only bugbear—it is a very little one—is the having to make preliminary arrangements towards settling ourselves in the new house. 1955 Sci. Amer. Jan. 90/1 Richness of context was their bugbear. 1966 Observer 10 Apr. 12/3 The great bugbear of economic management is the near impossibility of devising policies with a particular objective in view without..making it harder to attain other..desirable ends. |
b. attrib. or as adj.
| c 1600 Timon i. ii. (1842) 6 Thou shalt not fright me with thye bugbeare wordes. a 1734 North Exam. iii. viii. ¶25. 601 The most horrible & bug-bear Denunciations. 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Cranford xii. 223 Indiscretion was my bugbear fault. 1930 E. Sitwell Coll. Poems 252 A bugbear bone that bellows white. |
Hence ˈbugˌbeardom, bugbears collectively, needless fears; ˈbugˌbearish a.
| 1800 Southey in Robberds Mem. W. Taylor I. 35/2 Bonaparte..a name now growing more bugbearish than ever. 1862 Mrs. Speid Last Years Ind. 150 The assaults and tyrannies of bugbeardom. |
▪ II. † ˈbugbear, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To frighten with imaginary or needless fears.
| 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres 1 They carryed the Warre up and downe, only to bug-beare Townes and Villages. 1687 Hist. Sir J. Hawkwood ix. 17. 1705 S. Whately in W. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 167 To be bugbear'd out of our senses by big words. |