| 释义 |
▪ I. bugbear|ˈbʌgbɛə(r)|
Forms: 6–7 buggebeare, 7– bugbear.
[App. f. bug n.1 + bear n.1]
†1. A sort of hobgoblin (presumably in the shape of a bear) supposed to devour naughty children; hence, generally, any imaginary being invoked by nurses to frighten children. Obs.
1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 10 b, Hobgoblines and Buggebeares, with whom we were never acquaynted. 1592Nashe P. Penilesse (1842) 74 Meare bugge-beares to scare boyes. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 353 Certain Lamiæ..which like Bug-bears would eat up crying boys. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. xii. 55. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 11 ⁋9 To tell children of bugbears and goblins. 1842Barham Ingol. Leg. (1877) 10 The bugbear behind him is after him still.
2. transf. An object of dread, esp. of needless dread; an imaginary terror. In weakened senses: an annoyance, bane, thorn in the flesh.
1580Sidney Arcadia iii. 317 At the worst it is but a bugbeare. 1642Rogers Naaman To Rdr. §2 All that thinke originall sinne a bugbeare. 1717Kennett in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 430 IV. 306 The king of Sweden is every day a less bugbear to us. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop iii. 14 What have I done to be made a bugbear of? 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xvii. 51 Confiscation, a word which is so frightful a bugbear to most modern ears. 1880Geo. Eliot Let. 14 Sept. (1956) VII. 322 Our only bugbear—it is a very little one—is the having to make preliminary arrangements towards settling ourselves in the new house. 1955Sci. Amer. Jan. 90/1 Richness of context was their bugbear. 1966Observer 10 Apr. 12/3 The great bugbear of economic management is the near impossibility of devising policies with a particular objective in view without..making it harder to attain other..desirable ends.
b. attrib. or as adj.
c1600Timon i. ii. (1842) 6 Thou shalt not fright me with thye bugbeare wordes. a1734North Exam. iii. viii. ⁋25. 601 The most horrible & bug-bear Denunciations. 1853Mrs. Gaskell Cranford xii. 223 Indiscretion was my bugbear fault. 1930E. Sitwell Coll. Poems 252 A bugbear bone that bellows white.
Hence ˈbugˌbeardom, bugbears collectively, needless fears; ˈbugˌbearish a.
1800Southey in Robberds Mem. W. Taylor I. 35/2 Bonaparte..a name now growing more bugbearish than ever. 1862Mrs. Speid Last Years Ind. 150 The assaults and tyrannies of bugbeardom.
▪ II. † ˈbugbear, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To frighten with imaginary or needless fears.
1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres 1 They carryed the Warre up and downe, only to bug-beare Townes and Villages. 1687Hist. Sir J. Hawkwood ix. 17. 1705 S. Whately in W. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 167 To be bugbear'd out of our senses by big words. |