Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a bailiff, a sheriff’s officer.

1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ A Dict. of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, etc. 19: A hired constable who gives himself airs — is a Bug-a-boo.
1828		Lytton Pelham III 247: We have done many a mad prank together, which I should not like the bugaboos and bulkies to know.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

2. (UK Und.) a debt-collector.

1823

Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

3. (US) a fuss, a commotion.

1903		Western News (Stevensville, MT) 1 July 4/2: Misrepresentations of conditons [...] the ‘spotted’ or tick fever bugaboo, for example.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 208: bug-a-boo, undue fuss. ‘Why do you make such a bub-a-boo of nothing?’ (Thorn.).
1925		R. McAlmon Distinguished Air (1963) 22: After New England, and that absurd moral bugaboo.

4. (US black) a pesterer, a nuisance, esp. in a sexual context.

1888		J. Runciman Chequers 62: The Ramper said, ‘Wot cher, yer old bugaboo?’.
1898		J.D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 59: As for that bugaboo there [...] let him go to his Hogpin.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 45: Although I did what I know was right still there is that bugaboo, the law, that sent ‘Rag’ to prison.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 266: In reality the blackmailer is little better than a bugaboo. [...] Once a man faces down the blackmailer, the extortionist ceases to be dangerous at all.
1965		W.C. Anderson Adam M-1 165: Our old bugaboo—the guidance system.
1989		G. Tate ‘The GOP Throws a Mammy-Jammy’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 101: Jesse Jackson [...] claiming that the rearing of the Willie Horton bugaboo was ‘not racist in its intentions’.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 bugaboo Definition: a male or female who is always jocking someone. Example: Damn nigga, youz a bugaboo, so get the fuck away from me.