raw-head and bloody-bones

proper noun

A malicious bogeyman (or two bogeymen) formerly used to frighten children into good behaviour.

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Meanings

proper noun

alternative Raw-head and Bloody-bones

  1. A malicious bogeyman (or two bogeymen) formerly used to frighten children into good behaviour.

    In his New View of London (1708), Hatton assures us that hackney coachmen in the City were wont to swear "by Gog and Magog" [...] Some apprentices, he tells us, were as "frighted at the names of Gog and Magog as little children are at the terrible sound of Raw-head and Bloody-bones"[.]

    1928, Lewis Spence, Mysteries of Britain, page vii. 169
Cite this entry
APA

raw-head and bloody-bones. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/raw-head%20and%20bloody-bones

MLA

“raw-head and bloody-bones.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/raw-head%20and%20bloody-bones. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “raw-head and bloody-bones,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/raw-head%20and%20bloody-bones.

Source: raw-head and bloody-bones on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.