bug

Bug

Use bug in a sentence

A close up of a bug.

noun

The definition of a bug is an insect or a defect in something.
1. An example of bug is a beetle.
2. An example of bug is something that keeps a computer program from working correctly.

verb

Bug is slang meaning to annoy someone.
An example of bug is a child asking their parent if they're there yet over and over again during a long road trip.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bug." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug>.

APA Style

bug. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug

bug

any of an order (Hemiptera) of insects with sucking mouthparts and with forewings thickened toward the base, as a water bug or squash bug
also called true bug
any small arthropod, esp. if regarded as a pest, as a louse, cockroach, or centipede
a defect or imperfection, as in a machine or computer program: somewhat informal when used outside of a computer context
Informal any microscopic organism, esp. one causing disease; germ or virus
Informal a tiny microphone hidden to record conversation secretly
Slang
1. an enthusiast or devotee: often used in comb.: a shutterbug pursues photography as a hobby
2. a particular enthusiasm or obsession
Slang a small, compact automobile
Origin of bug
from the asterisk (thought to resemble a bug) placed beside the apprentice jockey's name on a racing program
Slang the weight allowance (5 pounds, or 2.3 kg) granted to an apprentice jockey for one year after the riding of five winners

Origin of bug

probably from bug

transitive verb

bugged, bug′ging

Informal to hide a microphone in (a room, etc.), as for recording a conversation secretly
Slang
1. to annoy, bother, anger, etc.
2. to confuse or puzzle

Slang to bulge or open wide, as in amazement: said of the eyes

bug Idioms

bug off

Slang to stop annoying someone and leave

also Brit.bugger off

bug out

Slang to run away; desert

Obs. a bugbear; hobgoblin

Origin of bug

Middle English bugge, akin to Norwegian dialect, dialectal bugge: see big

Bug

river in S Ukraine, flowing southeastward into the Black Sea: 530 mi (853 km)
also called Southern Bug
river in W Ukraine, flowing northwestward into the Vistula near Warsaw and forming part of the border with Poland: 500 mi (805 km)
also called Western Bug

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bug." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug>.

APA Style

bug. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug

bug

noun

a. An insect having mouthparts used for piercing and sucking, such as an aphid, a bedbug, or a stinkbug.
b. An insect of any kind, such as a cockroach or a ladybug.
c. A small invertebrate with many legs, such as a spider or a centipede.
a. A disease-producing microorganism or agent: a flu bug.
b. The illness or disease so produced: took several days to get over the bug.
a. A defect or difficulty, as in a system or design.
b. Computers A defect in the code or routine of a program.
An enthusiasm or obsession: got bitten by the writing bug.
An enthusiast or devotee; a buff: a model train bug.
An electronic listening device, such as a hidden microphone or wiretap, used in surveillance: planted a bug in the suspect's room.

verb

bugged, bug·ging, bugs

verb

intransitive

To grow large; bulge: My eyes bugged when I saw the mess.

verb

transitive

a. To annoy; pester.
b. To prey on; worry: a memory that bugged me for years.
To equip (a room or telephone circuit, for example) with a concealed electronic listening device.
To make (the eyes) bulge or grow large.

Phrasal Verbs: bug off Slang To leave someone alone; go away. bug out Slang To leave or quit, usually in a hurry.To avoid a responsibility or duty. Often used with on or of: bugged out on his partners at the first sign of trouble.

Origin of bug

Perhaps alteration ( influenced by obsolete bug hobgoblin ; see bugbear . ) of Middle English boude, budde beetle, weevil from Old English -budda as in scearnbudda dung beetle Low German dialectal budde louse

Related Forms:

bug′ger
noun

Bug

also Western Bug A river of eastern Europe rising in southwest Ukraine and flowing about 770 km (480 mi) through Poland to the Vistula River near Warsaw.
also Southern Bug A river of southern Ukraine rising in the southwest part and flowing about 853 km (530 mi) generally southeast to the Black Sea.

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bug." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug>.

APA Style

bug. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug

An insect belonging to the suborder Heteroptera.
See more at true bug
An insect, spider, or similar organism. Not in scientific use.

Usage The word bug is often used to refer to tiny creatures that crawl along, such as insects and even small animals that are not insects, such as spiders and millipedes. But for scientists the word has a much narrower meaning. In the strictest terms bugs are those insects that have mouthparts adapted for piercing and sucking. The mouthparts of these bugs are contained in a beak-shaped structure. Thus scientists would classify a louse but not a beetle or a cockroach as a bug. In fact, scientists often call lice and their relatives true bugs to distinguish them better from what everyone else calls “bugs.”

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bug." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug>.

APA Style

bug. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug

Noun

(plural bugs)

An insect of the order Hemiptera (the "true bugs").
(colloquial) Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest.
These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.
Various species of marine crustaceans; e.g. a Morton Bay bug.
A problem that needs fixing, especially in computing.
The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 5.
A contagious illness; a bacterium or virus causing it
He’s got the flu bug.
An enthusiasm for something; an obsession
I think he’s a gold bug, he has over 10,000 ounces in storage.
to catch the skiing bug
An electronic intercept device
We installed a bug in her telephone
A small and 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.
(broadcasting) A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to indicate what network or cable channel is televising it
Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show
(aviation) A manually positioned marker in flight instruments
A semi-automated telegraph key
(chiefly LGBT, "the bug") HIV.

Usage notes

Adjectives often applied to "bug": major, minor, serious, critical, nasty, annoying, important, strange, stupid, flying, silly.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present bugs, present participle bugging, simple past and past participle bugged)

(informal) To annoy.
Don’t bug me, I’m busy!
To install an electronic listening device or devices in.
We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.

Origin

First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a bedbug), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), a conflation of two words:

Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”), from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”) (compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin”, “snot”)
Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda (see scearnbudda (“dung beetle”)), from Proto-Germanic *buddô, *buzdô (compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”)). More at bud.

See also: büg

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bug." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug>.

APA Style

bug. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug

bug - Computer Definition

An error in coding or logic that causes a computer software program to malfunction (i.e., perform erratically, suffer catastrophic failure (crash), or produce invalid results. Although the origin of the term bug is somewhat in dispute, folklore dates it the mid-to-late 1940s, when a moth attracted to the light given off by the vacuum tubes of one of the first digital computers, either the Mark I or the ENIAC, died and shorted one of the circuits, causing a system failure. Others attribute the term to Thomas Edison (1878). So much for the etymology of bug. As for entomology, a moth is not a bug, strictly speaking. A true bug has thickened forewings and mouth parts adapted for piercing and sucking, and is of the insect order Hemiptera, which includes aphids, cicadas, and squash bugs. Moths suck, but do not pierce, and belong to the order Lepidoptera, as do butterflies. (Note: There are two kinds of people in this world -those who just love this arcane trivia, and those who hate it. I love it, in moderation. "Arcane trivia" is somewhat tautological, which is a pedantic word for redundant. There are two types of people in this world -- those who love pedants and those who hate them. I hate them.) By the way, a bug fix is in the form of a patch, update, upgrade, or insecticide, depending on the type of bug involved. See also bug fix; Edison,Thomas Alva; entomology; etymology; and pedant
An undocumented feature. (That's a joke.)

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bug." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug>.

APA Style

bug. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug

Defined nowadays as a programming error in a software program and usually having undesirable effects, the term allegedly stems from a real insect that was found to have disturbed operations in one of the early computer systems.

A Note from the Author

On October 19, 1992, I found my first "real bug." When I fired up my laser printer, it printed blotchy pages. Upon inspection, I found a bug lying belly up in the trough below the corona wire. The printer worked fine after removing it!

Computer Desktop Encyclopedia THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher. © 1981-2017 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"bug." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug>.

APA Style

bug. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bug

bug

bug

Bug

bug

Bug

bug - Computer Definition

A Note from the Author

bug - Medical Definition

Sentence Examples

WORDS NEAR bug IN THE DICTIONARY

bug

bug

Bug

bug

Bug

bug - Computer Definition

A Note from the Author

bug - Medical Definition

Sentence Examples

WORDS NEAR bug IN THE DICTIONARY

Join YourDictionary today