Link Centre Dictionary

bug

UK/bʊɡ/ US/bʌɡ/ common informal slang uk us
noun (5) verb (2)

noun

1.
2.

a fault or defect in a system or machine

Synonyms
3.
4.

insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis

Synonyms
5.

a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use

Synonyms

verb

1.

annoy persistently

  • “The children teased the boy because of his stammer”
Synonyms
2.

tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information

  • “The FBI was tapping the phone line of the suspected spy”
  • “Is this hotel room bugged?”
Synonyms

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-West Germanic *buʀdō, from Proto-Germanic *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above, might have played a role. Compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”), Icelandic budda (“purse”). More at bud. But ultimately this convergence of meaning doesn't prove a conflation of the two terms; they might have existed in parallel since PIE times with similar meanings, even if unnoticed by literary sources. The...

Phrases

  • ambush bug
  • arithmetic bug
  • armadillo bug
  • ash-gray leaf bug
  • assassin bug
  • Australian bug
  • bagrada bug
  • bait bug
  • bug down
  • bug in
  • bug out
  • bug up

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.