bug
//bʌɡ//
Forms
- Plural
- bugs
- present (v1)
- bug
- past (v2)
- bugged
- past participle (v3)
- bugged
- present participle
- bugging
- 3rd person singular
- bugs
Definitions
1.Any motile small terrestrial invertebrate, especially one that is seen as a pest.(informal)
- These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.
- 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.
- 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.
2.A problem that needs fixing.
- The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 3.
- 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.
3.A contagious illness, or a pathogen causing it.
- He's got the flu bug.
4.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.
1.To annoy.(informal)
- Don’t bug me, I’m busy!
2.To act suspiciously or irrationally, especially in a way that annoys others.(informal)
- 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.
4.To bulge or protrude.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3665
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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: