bug

An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).

Noun

  1. An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
    • Several pretty beetles, a superb "bug," and a few nice land-shells were obtained, and I returned in the afternoon well satisfied with my first trial of the promised land. - 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay...
  2. Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.
    • Speaking of advertising changes of name, a title by which those lodging-house pests, bugs, are now often known, that of Norfolk Howards, is derived from an advertisement in which one Ephraim Bug avowed his intention of...
    • Bugs are generated from the moisture of living animals, as it dries up outside their bodies. Lice are generated out of the flesh of animals. - 1910, Aristotle, translated by D.W. Thompson, The Works of Aristotle:...
    • These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.

    1. A motile arthropod, especially a small and terrestrial one.

      Any insect.

      • A: Eew, what is that thing?! Is that a bug?! B: No, it's a spider. And don't worry: she's not gonna hurt you.

    2. A motile arthropod, especially a small and terrestrial one.

      Any of various species of marine (saltwater or freshwater) crustaceans; e.g. a Moreton Bay bug, mudbug.

      • Bugs, oysters, prawns and crabs […] are plated up on the decks of four side-by-side trawlers bobbing on the calm waters of Trinity Inlet. - 2021 February 5, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 39, column 2:

    3. A motile arthropod, especially a small and terrestrial one.

      (paleontology, slang) A trilobite.

      • We asked Harris if he had any recommendations about seeing the famous trilobite digs. He said we should just drive out to his claim in the Wheeler Quadrangle, and it was just fine with him if we dug a few bugs. - 2007,...

    4. A motile arthropod, especially a small and terrestrial one.

      (Maine) A lobster.

    5. A motile arthropod, especially a small and terrestrial one.

      (UK, obsolete, specifically) A bedbug.

  3. A problem that needs fixing.
    • The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 3.
    • I have the right principle and am on the right track, but time, hard work and some good luck are necessary too. It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then...
    • A... leading aluminum producer claims it has worked all the bugs out of building and servicing aluminum radiators, says it hopes to have a large chunk of the radiator market by the early nineteen seventies. - 1968 April...

    Synonyms: defect glitch

  4. A contagious illness, or a pathogen causing it.
    • He's got the flu bug.
  5. An enthusiasm for something; an obsession.
    • I caught the skiing bug while staying in the Alps.
    • As we rode in the bus in the weird phosphorescent void of the Lincoln Tunnel we leaned on each other with fingers waving and yelled and talked excitedly, and I was beginning to get the bug like Dean. - 1957, Jack...
  6. A keen enthusiast or hobbyist.
    • His mother had been a bug on astrology, which was why the moment of his birth had been impressed on him so exactly. - 1961, Fredric Brown, Nightmare in Yellow:
    • Incidentally, the camera manufacturers have had a new worry—that they might "kill off the hobby," as U.S. Camera magazine put it recently—by automating to the point that real camera bugs would feel no challenge. - 1961,...
  7. A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device
    • We installed a bug in her telephone.

    Synonyms: wire

  8. A small and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.
    • He suspected the image was a Web bug used for determining who was visiting the site.
  9. A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to identify the broadcasting network or cable channel.
    • Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show.
    • The score bug displays the current football score over the ongoing match.
  10. A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
    • You look up the proper speed for the phase of flight, set the reminder bug, and then literally forget the speed. You don't read the airspeed number, you fly to the bug. - 2004, Flying Magazine, volume 131, number 10,...
  11. A semi-automated telegraph key.
    • At this point your telegraph operator, sitting at your right, goes "Ticky-tick-tickety-de-tick-tick," with his bug, as he calls his transmitter, and looks at you expectantly. - 1938, Paul Gallico, Farewell to Sport,...
    • As far as the dashes are concerned, the bug is the same in operation as any regular key would be if it were turned up on edge instead of sitting flat on the desk. - 1942, Arthur Reinhold Nilson, Radio Code Manual, page...
    • I was a very good radio operator. I bought my own bug. That's what the telegraph key in its modern form was called. It was semiautomatic. - 1986, E. L. Doctorow, World's Fair, page 282:
  12. Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies.
    • Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek. - c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...

    Synonyms: bog bogey bogle boggle boggard bugbear

Origin

First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a “bedbug”), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), from Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”) which is traced alternatively to: * a Celtic root found in Scots bogill (“goblin, bugbear”) and obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”); compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat, fear”) and Middle Irish bocanách (“supernatural being”). * Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”); compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin, snot”). * or to a word related to buck and originally referring to a goat-shaped spectre. For the “insect” meaning the assonance with Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda, from Proto-Germanic *buddô, *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above, might have played a role. Compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda...

Forms

bugs bugg

Derived

ambush bug antibug arithmetic bug armadillo bug ash-gray leaf bug assassin bug Australian bug bagrada bug bait bug Balmain bug bat bug beard bug bedbug beer bug beetle bug Bess bug Betsey bug Betsy bug bitten by the same bug boat bug bohrbug bow bug broad-headed bug brown marmorated stink bug

Verb

  1. To annoy.
    • Don’t bug me, I’m busy!
  2. To act suspiciously or irrationally, especially in a way that annoys others.
    • I'm worried about Wallace. He's been buggin' all week.
  3. To install an electronic listening device or devices in.
    • We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.

    Synonyms: wire

  4. To bulge or protrude.
    • I well remember the combination of excitement and apprehension with which I tentatively entered my first "rap." My eyes bugged open. There must have been 25 women in the room. I don't think I had ever seen so many...
  5. To represent (a value) using a bug on an instrument.
    • You (or the autopilot) are still steering to the bugged heading […] - 1996 April 5, Tom Horne, “Engage FD, and follow the bars”, in AOPA Turbine Pilot:

Forms

bugs bugging bugged bugg

Derived

bug down bug in bug out bug up