What does boogeyman mean?
The boogeyman is an imaginary monster whose chief purpose is to frighten — traditionally invoked by parents as a vague, unseen threat lurking in closets, under beds, or in dark corners to keep children obedient and indoors after dark. Because it is deliberately undefined, the boogeyman takes whatever form a frightened imagination supplies. By extension, the word describes any person, group, or danger treated as an object of widespread dread, particularly when that fear seems exaggerated or is deliberately stoked for effect, as in political rhetoric about a looming enemy. The term is informal to neutral in tone and appears frequently in discussions of folklore, childhood psychology, and scaremongering. Its enduring cultural presence — from bedtime warnings to horror films — reflects how effectively a nameless fear can shape behavior, making the word a useful shorthand for manufactured or imagined menace.
nounA frightening imaginary creature used to threaten or frighten children into behaving; more broadly, any feared but often vague or imagined source of danger.
- An imaginary monster invoked to frighten children into good behavior.
- A person, thing, or threat that is widely regarded as an object of fear, especially one exaggerated or used rhetorically (e.g. 'the boogeyman of inflation').
"The children tidied their rooms, convinced the boogeyman was hiding in the closet."
"She checked under the bed for the boogeyman before finally going to sleep."
"Politicians have long used the foreign power as a boogeyman to justify increased defense spending."
The standard plural follows the irregular -men pattern typical of compounds ending in -man.
"Different regions tell different stories about their local boogeymen."
The word 'boogey' traces back to a Scottish goblin called the bogle — meaning the monster under your bed is linguistically related to Shakespeare's Puck.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of boogeyman
The boogeyman derives from the Middle English word 'bogge', meaning a hobgoblin or terrifying specter, which also gives us the Scottish 'bogle' and related terms like bugbear and bugaboo. The word has been part of English folklore since at least the early modern period, though its precise first attestation is uncertain. Cognate forms appear throughout British and American English, including the older spelling bogeyman and regional variants like the Scottish boggle and booman. The ultimate origin of 'bogge' remains obscure, though some scholars link it to Old English 'puca', the ancestor of puck.
Related word forms
How boogeyman is actually used
Informal to neutral in register; common in both literal folklore contexts and figurative political or social rhetoric. The variant spellings bogeyman (more traditional) and boogie man also occur, with boogeyman being especially common in American English.
Easily confused with boogeyman
Bogeyman is simply the older and more traditional spelling of the same word; boogeyman is a common American variant spelling.