Meaning of raw-head and bloody-bones | Babel Free

Definitions

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

Examples

“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"[.]”

CEFR level