Word.ws English Dictionary

bug-a-boos

bug-a-boos is the plural of bug-a-boo.

Meaning of bug-a-boo

Noun

bug-a-boo (plural bug-a-boos)

  1. A mythical, nocturnal creature; a hobgoblin.
    • The German ubu, as well as the French bibou, is also used for bug-a-boo, hobgoblin, or any other fantastical, terrific nocturnal object.1776, William Kenrick, London review of English and foreign literature, page 316
    Synonyms:
    goblin
  2. Any imagined fear or threat, or a fear presumed larger than it really is.
    • ...a fear had come upon them, and they had a kind of bug-a-boo terror about roving gangsters.1949, – George R. Stewart, Earth Abides, page 80

Questions about bug-a-boos

What is bug-a-boos the plural of?
Bug-a-boos is the plural of bug-a-boo.

Words near bug-a-boos in the dictionary

  1. bug up one's ass
  2. bug woman
  3. bug zapper
  4. bug zappers
  5. bug-a-boo
  6. bug-a-boos
  7. bug-bear
  8. bug-bears
  9. bug-chaser
  10. bug-chasers
  11. bug-chasing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bug-a-boos (page history and authors); bug-a-boo (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bug-a-boos.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bug-a-boos. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.