boogeyman

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

What Mr. Ahamed withholds are the strong, respectable arguments to embrace, not to shun, the boogeyman that Federal Reserve economists style “deflation” but that a layman might rather recognize as human progress.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026

Artificial intelligence could be the boogeyman that gnaws at market share.

From Barron's • Feb. 4, 2026

Was Deen really an early victim of the fictitious celebrity boogeyman now known as “cancel culture,” or was she appropriately harangued?

From Salon • Sep. 7, 2025

With Moses as boogeyman, we are spared the more challenging question: Why did his worst decisions seem like such great ideas to so many people in the first place?

From Slate • Sep. 16, 2024

Vonetta didn’t notice, or she pretended she didn’t notice, but Fern had stopped clinging to Uncle D. Fern heard him hollering at night like the boogeyman howling and rattling in the radiator pipes.

From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia