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HOBGOBLIN
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Dictionary entry overview: What does hobgoblin mean?
• HOBGOBLIN (noun)
The noun HOBGOBLIN has 2 senses:
1. (folklore) a small grotesque supernatural creature that makes trouble for human beings
2. an object of dread or apprehension
Familiarity information: HOBGOBLIN used as a noun is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
(folklore) a small grotesque supernatural creature that makes trouble for human beings
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
Hypernyms ("hobgoblin" is a kind of...):
evil spirit (a spirit tending to cause harm)
Domain category:
folklore (the unwritten lore (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An object of dread or apprehension
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Synonyms:
bugbear; hobgoblin
Context example:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
Hypernyms ("hobgoblin" is a kind of...):
object (the focus of cognitions or feelings)
Context examples
What will you give me, said the hobgoblin, to do it for you?
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
This conversation they are apt to run into with the same temper that boys discover in delighting to hear terrible stories of spirits and hobgoblins, which they greedily listen to, and dare not go to bed for fear.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The robbers, who had been not a little frightened by the opening concert, had now no doubt that some frightful hobgoblin had broken in upon them, and scampered away as fast as they could.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand." (Native American proverb, tribe unknown)
"The remedy is worse than the desease." (Catalan proverb)
"Know what you say, but don't say all that you know." (Dutch proverb)