as in dread
something or someone that causes fear or dread especially without reason
doing one's tax returns is a real bugaboo for a lot of people
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Recent Examples of bugaboo
In this innovative and original home, the most surprising room of all may be on the top floor, a studio/guest room/sauna where that old bugaboo of knotty pine is raised to new heights of chic, giving it the feel and fragrance of a Swiss ski chalet.
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Michael Boodro, Architectural Digest, 9 Sep. 2024
There's one bugaboo, however: The devices ship with Android 14 rather than Android 15.
—Iyaz Akhtar, PCMAG, 13 Aug. 2024
Speech delays There weren’t teleprompter flubs or wardrobe malfunctions, but getting access to one’s acceptance speech turned out to be the biggest bugaboo of the show.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 17 June 2024
One further bugaboo was found on the GM Energy website, which says, in tiny print, that the products are only available in California, Florida, Michigan, New York, and Texas.
—Emme Hall, Ars Technica, 15 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for bugaboo 
Michael Boodro, Architectural Digest, 9 Sep. 2024
There's one bugaboo, however: The devices ship with Android 14 rather than Android 15.
—Iyaz Akhtar, PCMAG, 13 Aug. 2024
Speech delays There weren’t teleprompter flubs or wardrobe malfunctions, but getting access to one’s acceptance speech turned out to be the biggest bugaboo of the show.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 17 June 2024
One further bugaboo was found on the GM Energy website, which says, in tiny print, that the products are only available in California, Florida, Michigan, New York, and Texas.
—Emme Hall, Ars Technica, 15 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for bugaboo
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bugaboo
Noun
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Mondays used to fill many of us with dread at the thought of returning to a rigid office environment.Steve Osler, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
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New developments in generative AI have sparked existential dread in many film professionals, who fear that their jobs could someday be rendered obsolete.Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 4 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Another bugbear on Teams can come if you’ve been invited to a pre-arranged meeting, or left a meeting partway through, but still receive notifications every time a message is typed into the chat box of the ongoing meeting.Chris Stokel-Walker, WIRED, 6 Dec. 2020
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Those claims play into concerns about government overreach, a common right-wing bugbear.Ben Guarino, Scientific American, 11 Oct. 2024
Noun
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In four days, the coin will land, and half of the country will either exhale with relief or shudder in terror.Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2024
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At a rally in North Carolina last week, Trump mentioned Obama getting back on the trail and made his voice tremble in fake terror before dismissing him.Alex Thompson, Axios, 1 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Their decline was largely due to a combination of habitat loss, diseases including the sylvatic plague and a reduction in their primary food source: prairie dogs.David Faris, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024
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The counterculture was defeated, and in its place came plague, death, and Reaganism.Brandon Sanchez, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024
Noun
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The defending Olympic champion bogeyed the first hole at Le Golf National with further bogeys following at holes four and seven.NBC News, NBC News, 8 Aug. 2024
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Un hombre de caballo — a man of the horse — in the world of wicking polo shirts and bogeys?Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Bugaboo.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bugaboo. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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