barghest

Noun

barghest (plural barghests)

1. (UK) A legendary monstrous black dog, said to possess large teeth and claws, and (sometimes) to be capable of changing form.
   • In English folklore, a barghest is a monstrous dog with huge claws and teeth. This creature is said to roam around Yorkshire, and anyone who sees the dog will die soon after. There are barghests reported in Tennessee. On the grounds of Rotherwood Mansion in Kingsport, a monstrous black dog is said...1999, Charles Edwin Price, Mysterious Knoxville: Ghost Stories, Monster Tales, and Bizarre Incidents from the “Gateway to the Smokies”, Johnson City, Tenn.: The Overmountain Press, →ISBN, page 58
   • "Folklore often portrays barghests as guardians who lead lost travelers home," I said, not answering his question in the least, or mentioning that more often barghests were considered portents of death.2012, Kalayna Price, chapter 20, in Grave Memory: An Alex Craft Novel, New York, N.Y.: Roc Books, New American Library, →ISBN
2. (UK) Any ghost, wraith, hobgoblin, elf, or spirit.
   • Yet another possibility is that the headless man is a barghest, sometimes referred to and spelled as 'barguest', 'bahrgeist' or 'boguest'. These are creatures primarily associated with the north of England – Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire. They assume at will the form of a...2016, Alexander L. Kaufman, “‘And Many Oþer Diuerse Tokens …’: Portents and Wonders in ‘Warkworth’s’ Chronicle”, in Jaclyn Rajsic, Erik Kooper, Dominique Hoche, editors, The Prose Brut and Other Late...