Crossword clues for bogeyman
bogeyman
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bogeyman \Bo"gey*man\, n.; pl. Bogeymen. A goblin; a bugbear; a bogey[1]. This is the form used by parents to frighten children; as, if you don't eat your vegetables, the bogeyman will get you.
Syn: bogey.
Boogeyman \Boog"ey*man\, Bogeyman \Bo"gey*man\, n. Something frightful, as a specter; anything imaginary that causes needless fright; something used to excite needless fear; also, something really dangerous, or an imaginary monster, used to frighten children, etc. ``Go to sleep or the Boogeyman will get you.''
Syn: Hobgoblin; goblin; specter; ogre; scarecrow; booger; bugaboo; bugbear.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 A menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories. 2 (context by extension English) Any make-believe threat, especially one used to intimidate or distract.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Bogeyman (usually spelled boogeyman in the U.S.; also spelled bogieman or boogie man; see American and British English spelling differences), pronounced or , is a common allusion to a mythical creature in many cultures used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. This monster has no specific appearance, and conceptions about it can vary drastically from household to household within the same community; in many cases, he has no set appearance in the mind of an adult or child, but is simply a non-specific embodiment of terror. Parents may tell their children that if they misbehave, the bogeyman will get them. Bogeymen may target a specific mischief — for instance, a bogeyman that punishes children who suck their thumbs — or general misbehaviour, depending on what purpose needs serving. In some cases, the bogeyman is a nickname for the devil. Bogeyman tales vary by region. The bogeyman is usually a masculine entity, but can be any gender, or simply be androgynous.
The Bogeyman is a legendary monster.
Bogeyman, Boogeyman or Boogie Man may also refer to:
Usage examples of "bogeyman".
Still, every town, and particularly a town with a heritage of crazies like Milagro, needs some sort of bogeyman, banshee, witch, frog-eating Cleofes Apo-daca shaped like a dog, or Abuelo with which to terrorize children during the holiday seasons, and also with which to explain many of the unexplainable things that happen year-round in the neighborhood.
He tole us lots of stores abot people he jump out on and he said sins Miss is our teachr he think no bogeymen will be in our houses bcos one thing a bogey dos not like is Miss finding him.
And then she'd grown up and found out that the real fantasies weren't the Pale Rider or the Tooth Fairy or bogeymen - they were all solid facts.
Then they "might see that the bogeymen of the cultural left are not quite as terrifying as they thought," but "are human beings, too.
On that occasion, the human race, severally and corporately, intellectually and emotionally, had decided to be better people and discard the bogeymen of the past.
Callahan cries out miserably, the cry of a child who suddenly realizes the bogeyman has been real all along, waiting patiently in the closet for its chance.
The mark of the devil on a woman's breast is only a mole, the man who came back from the dead and stood at his wife's door dressed in the cerements of the grave was only suffering from locomotor ataxia, the bogeyman who gibbers and capers in the corner of a child's bedroom is only a heap of blankets.
Over medium wave and short wave, a bogeyman can be brought into the room.
A pious fraud to scare Keepers into keeping their virginity, a bogeyman to frighten babies and girl-children!
There is a remarkable anecdote in Marina Warner's No Go the Bogeyman, in which she recounts finding a copy of Struwwelpeter that had been "vigorously defaced"
The sword swallowers and the fire eaters were Lil's bogeymen at the time.
The bogeymen of our young dreams were the mythical undead cheese-complexioned Plant workers, their wispy hair popping out of their skulls in tufts and clumps while they chewed sticks of spearmint gum, taking turns to look out the Plants' one porthole window and telling Daisy and me tales of braziered cities, too-hot suns, and all the fish in the world floating belly up in the seas.
After all of them, all the old bogeymen who've been let off, allowed to go free, brushed under the carpet, kicked upstairs and even honoured for treachery - the buck stops here!
She'd heard of them all her life, but much like the bogeyman, she'd attributed them to urban legends.
Topping the list of potential new global bogeymen, however, are the Yellow Peril, the alleged threat to American economic security emanating from East Asia, and the so-called Green Peril (green is the color of Islam).