Word.ws English Dictionary

bugbears

bugbears is the plural of bugbear.

bugbears is the third-person singular simple present indicative of bugbear.

Meaning of bugbear

Noun

bugbear (plural bugbears)

  1. An ongoing problem; a recurring obstacle or adversity.
    • Stone ballast is now used throughout the main line, and has the additional advantage of eliminating the previous bugbear of dust.1940 November, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 592
    Synonyms:
    pet peeve
  2. A source of dread; resentment; or irritation.
    • What has this Bugbear Death to frighten Man,
      If Souls can die, as well as Bodies can?1709, John Dryden, "Lucretius: A Poem against the Fear of Death" (lines 1-2), published in a pamphlet of the same name with an Ode in Memory of Mrs. Ann Killebrew
  3. A generic creature, often described as a large goblin, meant to inspire fear in children.
    • Ha, ha: alas poore wretch: a poore Chipochia, haſt not ſlept to night? would he not (a naughty man) let it ſleepe: a bug-beare take him.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

See all 4 meanings of bugbear

Questions about bugbears

What is bugbears the plural of?
Bugbears is the plural of bugbear.

Words near bugbears in the dictionary

  1. bugbanes
  2. bugbear
  3. bugbeared
  4. bugbearing
  5. bugbearish
  6. bugbears
  7. Bugbee
  8. Bugbees
  9. bugboy
  10. bugboys
  11. Bugbuga

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bugbears (page history and authors); bugbear (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: “bugbears.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bugbears. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.