Word.ws English Dictionary

hobgoblins

hobgoblins is the plural of hobgoblin.

Meaning of hobgoblin

Noun

hobgoblin (plural hobgoblins)

  1. A small, ugly goblin that makes trouble for humans.
    • They were, like their northern kindred, divided into two classes: the rural Elves, inhabiting the woods, fields, mountains, and caverns; and the domestic or house-spirits, called Hobgoblins and Robin Goodfellows.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 104
  2. (broadly, figuratively) A source of dread, fear or apprehension; a bugbear.
    • A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series

Questions about hobgoblins

What is hobgoblins the plural of?
Hobgoblins is the plural of hobgoblin.

Words near hobgoblins in the dictionary

  1. Hoberts
  2. hobgoblin
  3. hobgoblinish
  4. hobgoblinism
  5. hobgoblinry
  6. hobgoblins
  7. Hobgood
  8. Hobgoods
  9. hobhouchin
  10. hobhouchins
  11. Hobhouse

Source and license

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