bugbear: [16] Early references to bugbear suggest that it was a sort of bug – ‘frightening creature’ – conjured up to frighten naughty children. It is usually assumed that the second element of the word simply represents the animal ‘bear’, and that the frightening creature was represented as being in the shape of a bear. The modern sense ‘source of annoyance’ developed in the late 19th century.
bugbear (n.)
1580s, a sort of demon in the form of a bear that eats small children, also "object of dread" (whether real or not), from obsolete bug "goblin, scarecrow" (see bug (n.)) + bear (n.).
雙語例句
1. Inflation is the government's main bugbear.
通貨膨脹是政府最頭痛的問題。
來自《權(quán)威詞典》
2. Inflation is the Government's main bugbear.
通貨膨脹是政府的主要難題.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
3. Money is my biggest bugbear.
我最愁的是錢。
來自辭典例句
4. University reform had long been his bugbear, and now was his bane.
大學(xué)改革早就是使他頭痛的事情, 如今更成為他的禍害了.
來自辭典例句
5. The rise of moralism was a bugbear to Lord Byron , born in 1788.