beast vs bug-a-boo

beast

noun
  • A monstrously unusual and dangerous animal. 

  • Someone who is particularly impressive, especially athletically or physically. 

  • Any animal other than a human; usually only applied to land vertebrates, especially large or dangerous four-footed ones. 

  • Anything regarded as larger or more powerful than one of its normal size or strength. 

  • A person who behaves in a violent, antisocial or uncivilized manner. 

  • A domestic animal, especially a bovine farm animal. 

  • A sex offender. 

  • Something unpleasant and difficult. 

  • A thing or matter, especially a difficult or unruly one. 

adj
  • great; excellent; powerful 

verb
  • to engage in sexual intercourse, particularly in an illicit context 

  • to impose arduous exercises, either as training or as punishment. 

bug-a-boo

noun
  • A mythical, nocturnal creature; a hobgoblin. 

  • Any imagined fear or threat, or a fear presumed larger than it really is. 

How often have the words beast and bug-a-boo occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )