bogeyman.

1. An imaginary frightening being used in stories or warnings, especially to scare children.

2. A person, group, or thing presented as a frightening threat, often in an exaggerated or manipulative way.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a childhood bogeyman
• tales of the bogeyman

On the page

The childhood bogeyman returned in her dreams with the same knock at the window.

Tales of the bogeyman kept the children away from the abandoned cellar.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: Singular bogeyman; plural bogeymen. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.