bugaboo

See also: bug-a-boo

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌɡəbuː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

bugaboo (plural bugaboos)

1. Alternative spelling of bug-a-boo
   • 1902, William James, “Lecture I”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience […] ‎^[1], London: Longmans, Green & Co.:

     At any rate you must all be ready now to judge the religious life by its results exclusively, and I shall assume that the bugaboo of morbid origin will scandalize your piety no more.

   • 2009, Joshua D. Angrist, Jörg-Steffen Pischke, Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion, Princeton University Press, page xiii:

     Rather, our discussion of inference is devoted mostly to the finite-sample bugaboos that should bother practitioners.