bugbear
An ongoing problem; a recurring obstacle or adversity.
Noun
- 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:
- Level crossings are the bugbear of railway operation at Hull. There are no fewer than 16 within the city boundary. - 1962 January, “Talking of Trains: Hull's level crossing problem”, in Modern Railways, page 10:
- Next, they operate in constrained worlds. Apple is a particular bugbear for Mr Zuckerberg and Mr Sweeney. - 2021 December 18, “The billionaire battle for the metaverse”, in The Economist, →ISSN:
Synonyms: pet peeve
- 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...
- But, to the world no bugbear is so great As want of figure and a small estate. - 1738, Alexander Pope, Epistle I of the First Book of Horace; to Lord Bolingbroke:
- What have I done to be made a bugbear of, and to be shunned and dreaded as if I brought the plague? - 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […],...
Synonyms: anathema antipathy bête noire
- 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...
- “How could you lie so glaringly as to affirm I hated the ‘poor child’? and invent bugbear stories to terrify her from my door-stones?[…]” - 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXII, in Wuthering...
- "My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder that you think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from infancy in the fear of this monster, and therefore still regard him with the awe that children...
Origin
From obsolete meaning of bug (“something terrifying”) + bear. See Middle English bugge, modern bogey.
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To alarm with idle phantoms.