(n.) A frightful goblin; an imp; a bugaboo; also, a name formerly given to the household spirit, Robin Goodfellow.
Example Sentences:
(1) Next month the Labour party will do likewise, chanting against the hardy hobgoblins of banking, tax-dodging and Toryism.
(2) I'm taking a break from screenwriting right now, although I'm developing a TV project with my wife for HBO, a second world war spy series called Hobgoblins , about a bunch of magicians and con-artists who are hired by British intelligence to perpetrate cons and scams against the Germans.
(3) Pro-Europeans, who can see the benefits of EU membership without dreaming up federalist hobgoblins, do not think such constitutional protection necessary.
Spook
Definition:
(n.) A spirit; a ghost; an apparition; a hobgoblin.
(n.) The chimaera.
Example Sentences:
(1) Top Gear, Robin Hood, Doctor Who, Primeval and Spooks were the company's top five highest-grossing shows sold internationally.
(2) Turning on the community suggests they are spooked by the growing support to protect our national treasures.
(3) But political corruption and the implacable opposition of the spooks and military to progressive change are the traditional forms of anti-democratic politics, in Britain, as elsewhere.
(4) Two witnesses said they thought the gorilla was trying to protect the boy at first, before getting spooked by the screams of onlookers.
(5) Backing the spooks against a left-leaning newspaper is, for a Tory prime minister, a no-brainer.
(6) Investors were also spooked by a chequered sales performance as breakneck growth stuttered at home and abroad.
(7) In the latest CIA coup, America's leading spooks have sent the Twittersphere into a frenzy with their chucklesome debut on social media: "We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet."
(8) She is, therefore, basically the Ruth Evershed (from Spooks) of the ancient world.
(9) The 'judge-led inquiry' that never was is shut down and investigating kidnap and torture in freedom's name will be left to a watchdog that never barks and which exonerated the spooks six years ago."
(10) If the only black people they see are the "looky looky" men on the beach selling fake watches then the idea of a black holidaymaker might spook them.
(11) "She has reinvented family drama in Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Merlin and launched acclaimed contemporary series such as Spooks and Life on Mars as well as Cranford.
(12) Any list of the decade's most memorable shows would be dominated by series that began in its early years: The Office, Spooks, Peep Show, The Thick of It, Shameless.
(13) Greece spooked investors for a third day running on Thursday as the Athens stock exchange fell 7.35% amid fears over the debt-stricken country’s future in the eurozone.
(14) If the desertion of some of their juniors has spooked Egypt's generals, they are being careful not to show it.
(15) In the technology world, a still-young and rapidly expanding business posting losses isn't unusual, and it's unlikely to spook many investors.
(16) The Daily Mail and the Spectator apparently don't care much if spooks routinely capture and comb all our emails and phone traffic.
(17) After our daughter left, my wife would sometimes go to her room – pictures of Spooks, etc – and cry.
(18) He is said to have entered the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit premises on 3 April and walked away on 5 April, spooked by the discovery that the fire escape door they had previously used had been locked in the interim.
(19) As the debate in ancient Westminster Hall wound on and the libertarians (security must not undermine basic freedoms) proved the better-briefed side, the spook faction got a bit dirty, as is their patriotic duty.
(20) That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in: they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis.” Peña Nieto’s pronouncements are the most forceful so far against Trump, whose rise to the top of the Republican primary races has spooked Mexicans of all social strata.