bogey

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an evil spirit or source of fear; in golf, one over par

   He finished the round with three bogeys.

Of obscure origin, related to the dialectal bogle and boggart and possibly to Middle English bugge ('frightening specter'); the golf sense ('one over par') derives from a 19th-century allusion to an imaginary opponent, the 'Bogey Man.'

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