noun

• 1A cause of obsessive fear, anxiety, or irritation.

  ‘the biggest villain is that adman's bugbear, saturated fat’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The major bugbear for anyone involved with Hearts is the continuing problems with Tynecastle Stadium.’
  • ‘Now making phone calls has become one of my bugbears.’
  • ‘But I shall leave those bugbears for another day.’
  • ‘Not a big bugbear, just a minor irritation with no consequences.’
  • ‘In some ways life is a battle against these bugbears.’
  • ‘It's the same thing with phones - one of my personal bugbears.’
  • ‘Directors said rising costs, new regulations and the difficulty of raising capital are the new bugbears.’
  • ‘Youth nuisance is the main bugbear in this town and we are working hard to stamp it out.’
  • ‘Difficulties concerning preemption have proven to be the biggest bugbear for Lewis's theory.’
  • ‘GPs who refuse to treat patients with drug problems or refuse to put them on methadone are one of McCartney's biggest bugbears.’
  • ‘A police spokesman said: ‘We are hoping we can make some inroads because the damage these kids are causing is one of the major bugbears in the town.’’
  • ‘Point to this program, and a bevy of bugbears, from disaffected employees to muckraking journalists, will disappear.’
  • ‘Marie-Antoinette was a Habsburg, and thus from the moment of her arrival in France in 1770 the bugbear of the Richelieu-d'Aiguillon faction, which hated the Austrian alliance.’
  • ‘Cooke insists the device will speed up the pace of play, one of the biggest bugbears in the increasingly popular sport.’
  • ‘The M8's four lanes are regarded by hundreds of thousands of Scots as one of the biggest bugbears of their working lives.’
  • ‘As well as litter, the major bugbears identified by council tenants include vandalism and graffiti, which take second and third place in the council's league of perceived problems.’
  • ‘In fact, loading times are a real bugbear in Total Club Manager but this is a problem for the PlayStation 2, not the game itself.’
  • ‘Braintree councillors are concerned the town is becoming choked with traffic since the new A120 opened and fear the problem is proving a major bugbear for local residents.’
  • ‘The trouble is that, unless he can get his squad in place early in the summer, Allardyce fears he could encounter the cold start problems that have been a major bugbear of the past two seasons.’
  • ‘The lack of accountability in this area has been one of my bugbears for a few years, so while welcome, it's very, very late in the day and seems to have been prompted by an IMC report.’

  Synonyms

  pet hate, hate, bane, irritant, irritation, dislike, anathema, aversion, vexation, thorn in one's flesh, thorn in one's side, bane of one's life

  View synonyms

• 2archaic An imaginary being invoked to frighten children, typically a sort of hobgoblin supposed to devour them.

  ‘One of these, Francis Moore, wrote: ‘A dreadful bugbear to the women is called Mumbo Jumbo, which keeps the women in awe.’’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Mormo was a female spectre, with which the Greeks used to frighten little children. Mormo was one of the same class of bugbears as Empusa and Lamia.’
  • ‘Mermaids are supposed to abound in the ponds and ditches in this neighbourhood. Careful mothers use them as bugbears to prevent little children from going too near the water.’
  • ‘Some frighten their children with beggars, bugbears or hobgoblins if they cry, or be otherwise unruly’