bogeyman

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• boogieman
• boogeyman
• boogyman
• bogyman

Etymology

bogy +‎ -man

Noun

bogeyman (plural bogeymen)

1. A menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories.
2. (by extension) Any make-believe threat, especially one used to intimidate or distract.

   The alleged link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda turned out to be a bogeyman.

Translations

menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories

• Catalan: home del sac (ca) m
• Danish: bussemand (da) c, bøhmand (da) c
• Esperanto: infantimigulo (eo)
• Estonian: koll (et)
• Finnish: mörkö (fi)
• French: croque-mitaine (fr) m
• German: Butzemann (de) m
• Hungarian: krampusz (hu)
• Japanese: ブギーマン (ja) (bugīman)

• Jèrriais: croque-mitaine m
• Latgalian: buba
• Latvian: bubulis (lv)
• Lithuanian: baubas (lt), bubulis (lt)
• Norwegian: busemann (no) m
• Russian: бука (ru) (búka) f, бабай (ru) (babáj) m
• Serbo-Croatian: babaroga (sh) f
• Spanish: coco (es)
• Turkish: gulyabani (tr), hortlak (tr), öcü (tr)

any make-believe threat

• Danish: bussemand (da) c, bøhmand (da) c
• Finnish: mörkö (fi)

• Russian: пугало (ru) (pugalo)

See also

• bugbear

Anagrams

• moneybag