Definition of BUG

bug

Plural: bugs

Noun

  • general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate
  • a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine
  • a small hidden microphone; for listening secretly
  • insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis
  • a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use
  • An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
  • Any of various species of marine or freshwater crustaceans; e.g. a Moreton Bay bug, mudbug.
  • Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest.
  • Any minibeast.
  • Any insect, arachnid, myriapod or entognath.
  • A bedbug.
  • A problem that needs fixing.
  • A contagious illness, or a pathogen causing it.
  • An enthusiasm for something; an obsession.
  • A keen enthusiast or hobbyist.
  • A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device.
  • A small and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.
  • A lobster.
  • A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to identify the broadcasting network or cable channel.
  • A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
  • A semi-automated telegraph key.
  • Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies.
  • HIV.
  • A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.
  • A trilobite.
  • Synonym of oil bug.
  • An asterisk denoting an apprentice jockey's weight allowance.
  • A young apprentice jockey.
  • Synonym of union bug.
  • A small piece of metal used in a slot machine to block certain winning combinations.
  • A metal clip attached to the underside of a table, etc. to hold hidden cards, as a form of cheating.

Verb

Verb Forms: bugged, bugging, bugs

  • To annoy, bother, or irritate.
  • annoy persistently
  • tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information
    • "Is this hotel room bugged?"
  • To annoy.
  • To act suspiciously or irrationally, especially in a way that annoys others.
  • To install an electronic listening device or devices in.
  • To bulge or protrude.

Examples

  • Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show.
  • Don’t bug me, I’m busy!
  • He suspected the image was a Web bug used for determining who was visiting the site.
  • He's got the flu bug.
  • I caught the skiing bug while staying in the Alps.
  • I'm worried about Wallace. He's been buggin' all week.
  • It really started to bug me when my opponent kept drawing all the high-value tiles.
  • The score bug displays the current football score over the ongoing match.
  • The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 3.
  • These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.
  • We installed a bug in her telephone.
  • We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.

Origin / Etymology

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 Isthmus Mixe 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 (“newborn domestic animal”)). More at bud. But ultimately this convergence of meaning doesn't prove a conflation of the two terms, they might have existed parallely since PIE times with similar meanings, even if unnoticed by literary sources.
The term is used to refer to technical errors and problems at least as early as the 19th century, predating the commonly known story of a moth being caught in a computer.

Synonyms

badger, beleaguer, germ, glitch, hemipteran, hemipteron, hemipterous insect, intercept, microbe, pester, tap, tease, wiretap, bog, bogey, boggard, boggle, bogle, bug boy, bugbear, defect, oil bug, union bug

Scrabble Score: 6

bug: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
bug: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
bug: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 9

bug: valid Words With Friends Word