Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Bugaboo

Bug′a·boo′ (·ȧ·bo͞o′), Bug′bear′, n. [See Bug.] Something frightful, as a specter; anything imaginary that causes needless fright; something used to excite needless fear; also, something really dangerous, used to frighten children, etc. "Bugaboos to fright ye." Lloyd.

But, to the world no bugbear is so great As want of figure and a small estate. Pope.

The bugaboo of the liberals is the church pray. S. B. Griffin.

The great bugaboo of the birds is the owl. J. Burroughs.

Syn. — Hobgoblin; goblin; specter; ogre; scarecrow.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.