Definition of "goblin"
goblin
noun
plural goblins
(fantasy literature) a malevolent and grotesque diminutive humanoid, often associated with orcs or trolls.
Quotations
" […] If he had struck a stroke more to the side just here," said the goblin, tapping the very stone, as it seemed to Curdie, against which his head lay, "he would have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and if he follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in. […] "
1872, George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin, page 50
Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.
2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76