BUG DEFINITIONS - 13 definitions found
bug n 1: general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate 2: a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine [syn: bug, glitch] 3: a small hidden microphone; for listening secretly 4: insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis [syn: hemipterous insect, bug, hemipteran, hemipteron] 5: a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use [syn: microbe, bug, germ] v 1: annoy persistently; "The children teased the boy because of his stammer" [syn: tease, badger, pester, bug, beleaguer] 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?" [syn: wiretap, tap, intercept, bug] bug - mugan Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003) Bug geographical name 1. river over 450 miles (720 kilometers) central Europe rising in W Ukraine, forming part of Ukraine-Poland and Poland-Belarus borders, & flowing into the Vistula in Poland 2. river over 500 miles (805 kilometers) SW Ukraine flowing SE to the Dnieper estuary Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003) bug I. noun Etymology: Middle English bugge hobgoblin; probably akin to Low German bögge goblin Date: 14th century obsolete bogey, bugbear II. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1622 1. a. an insect or other creeping or crawling invertebrate (as a spider or centipede) b. any of several insects (as the bedbug or cockroach) commonly considered obnoxious c. any of an order (Hemiptera and especially its suborder Heteroptera) of insects that have sucking mouthparts, forewings thickened at the base, and incomplete metamorphosis and are often economic pests — called also true bug 2. an unexpected defect, fault, flaw, or imperfection <the software was full of bugs> 3. a. a germ or microorganism especially when causing disease b. an unspecified or nonspecific sickness usually presumed due to a bug 4. a sudden enthusiasm 5. enthusiast <a camera bug> 6. a prominent person 7. a crazy person 8. a concealed listening device 9. [from its designation by an asterisk on race programs] a weight allowance given apprentice jockeys III. verb (bugged; bugging) Date: 1935 transitive verb 1. to plant a concealed microphone in 2. bother, annoy <don't bug me with petty details> intransitive verb to lose one's composure ; freak — often used with out IV. verb (bugged; bugging) Etymology: probably from 2bug Date: 1865 intransitive verb of the eyes protrude, bulge — often used with out transitive verb to cause to bug <his eyes were bugged with horror> Oxford English Reference Dictionary
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner\'s English Dictionary bug (bugs, bugging, bugged) 1. A bug is an insect or similar small creature. (INFORMAL) We noticed tiny bugs that were all over the walls. N-COUNT: usu pl 2. A bug is an illness which is caused by small organisms such as bacteria. (INFORMAL) I think I've got a bit of a stomach bug... ...the killer brain bug meningitis. N-COUNT 3. If there is a bug in a computer program, there is a mistake in it. (COMPUTING) There is a bug in the software. N-COUNT 4. A bug is a tiny hidden microphone which transmits what people are saying. There was a bug on the phone. N-COUNT 5. If someone bugs a place, they hide tiny microphones in it which transmit what people are saying. He heard that they were planning to bug his office... VERB: V n • bugging ...an electronic bugging device. N-UNCOUNT 6. You can say that someone has been bitten by a particular bug when they suddenly become very enthusiastic about something. (INFORMAL) I've definitely been bitten by the gardening bug... Roundhay Park in Leeds was the place I first got the fishing bug. N-SING: oft n N 7. If someone or something bugs you, they worry or annoy you. (INFORMAL) I only did it to bug my parents. VERB: V n English Explanatory Dictionary bug bʌɡ n. & v. --n. 1 a any of various hemipterous insects with oval flattened bodies and mouthparts modified for piercing and sucking. b US any small insect. 2 sl. a micro-organism, esp. a bacterium, or a disease caused by it. 3 a concealed microphone. 4 sl. an error in a computer program or system etc. 5 sl. an obsession, enthusiasm, etc. --v. (bugged, bugging) 1 tr. sl. conceal a microphone in (esp. a building or room). 2 tr. sl. annoy, bother. 3 intr. (often foll. by out) US sl. leave quickly. øbug-eyed with bulging eyes. [17th c.: orig. unkn.] 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue BUG A nick name given by the Irish to Englishmen; bugs having, as it is said, been introduced into Ireland by the English. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Bug \Bug\, n. [OE. bugge, fr. W. bwg, bwgan, hobgoblin, scarecrow, bugbear. Cf. Bogey, Boggle.] 1. A bugbear; anything which terrifies. [Obs.] Sir, spare your threats: The bug which you would fright me with I seek. --Shak. 2. (Zo["o]l.) A general name applied to various insects belonging to the Hemiptera; as, the squash bug; the chinch bug, etc. 3. (Zo["o]l.) An insect of the genus Cimex, especially the bedbug ({C. lectularius}). See Bedbug. 4. (Zo["o]l.) One of various species of Coleoptera; as, the ladybug; potato bug, etc.; loosely, any beetle. 5. (Zo["o]l.) One of certain kinds of Crustacea; as, the sow bug; pill bug; bait bug; salve bug, etc. Note: According to present popular usage in England, and among housekeepers in America, bug, when not joined with some qualifying word, is used specifically for bedbug. As a general term it is used very loosely in America, and was formerly used still more loosely in England. ``God's rare workmanship in the ant, the poorest bug that creeps.'' --Rogers (--Naaman). ``This bug with gilded wings.'' --Pope. Bait bug. See under Bait. Bug word, swaggering or threatening language. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl. Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) bug n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym of feature. Examples: "There's a bug in the editor: it writes things out backwards." "The system crashed because of a hardware bug." "Fred is a winner, but he has a few bugs" (i.e., Fred is a good guy, but he has a few personality problems). Historical note: Admiral Grace Hopper (an early computing pioneer better known for inventing COBOL) liked to tell a story in which a technician solved a glitch in the Harvard Mark II machine by pulling an actual insect out from between the contacts of one of its relays, and she subsequently promulgated bug in its hackish sense as a joke about the incident (though, as she was careful to admit, she was not there when it happened). For many years the logbook associated with the incident and the actual bug in question (a moth) sat in a display case at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC). The entire story, with a picture of the logbook and the moth taped into it, is recorded in the "Annals of the History of Computing", Vol. 3, No. 3 (July 1981), pp. 285-286. The text of the log entry (from September 9, 1947), reads "1545 Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay. First actual case of bug being found". This wording establishes that the term was already in use at the time in its current specific sense -- and Hopper herself reports that the term `bug' was regularly applied to problems in radar electronics during WWII. Indeed, the use of `bug' to mean an industrial defect was already established in Thomas Edison's time, and a more specific and rather modern use can be found in an electrical handbook from 1896 ("Hawkin's New Catechism of Electricity", Theo. Audel & Co.) which says: "The term `bug' is used to a limited extent to designate any fault or trouble in the connections or working of electric apparatus." It further notes that the term is "said to have originated in quadruplex telegraphy and have been transferred to all electric apparatus." The latter observation may explain a common folk etymology of the term; that it came from telephone company usage, in which "bugs in a telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines. Though this derivation seems to be mistaken, it may well be a distorted memory of a joke first current among _telegraph_ operators more than a century ago! Or perhaps not a joke. Historians of the field inform us that the term "bug" was regularly used in the early days of telegraphy to refer to a variety of semi-automatic telegraphy keyers that would send a string of dots if you held them down. In fact, the Vibroplex keyers (which were among the most common of this type) even had a graphic of a beetle on them (and still do)! While the ability to send repeated dots automatically was very useful for professional morse code operators, these were also significantly trickier to use than the older manual keyers, and it could take some practice to ensure one didn't introduce extraneous dots into the code by holding the key down a fraction too long. In the hands of an inexperienced operator, a Vibroplex "bug" on the line could mean that a lot of garbled Morse would soon be coming your way. Further, the term "bug" has long been used among radio technicians to describe a device that converts electromagnetic field variations into acoustic signals. It is used to trace radio interference and look for dangerous radio emissions. Radio community usage derives from the roach-like shape of the first versions used by 19th century physicists. The first versions consisted of a coil of wire (roach body), with the two wire ends sticking out and bent back to nearly touch forming a spark gap (roach antennae). The bug is to the radio technician what the stethoscope is to the stereotypical medical doctor. This sense is almost certainly ancestral to modern use of "bug" for a covert monitoring device, but may also have contributed to the use of "bug" for the effects of radio interference itself. Actually, use of `bug' in the general sense of a disruptive event goes back to Shakespeare! (Henry VI, part III - Act V, Scene II: King Edward: "So, lie thou there. Die thou; and die our fear; For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all.") In the first edition of Samuel Johnson's dictionary one meaning of `bug' is "A frightful object; a walking spectre"; this is traced to `bugbear', a Welsh term for a variety of mythological monster which (to complete the circle) has recently been reintroduced into the popular lexicon through fantasy role-playing games. In any case, in jargon the word almost never refers to insects. Here is a plausible conversation that never actually happened: "There is a bug in this ant farm!" "What do you mean? I don't see any ants in it." "That's the bug." A careful discussion of the etymological issues can be found in a paper by Fred R. Shapiro, 1987, "Entomology of the Computer Bug: History and Folklore", American Speech 62(4):376-378. [There has been a widespread myth that the original bug was moved to the Smithsonian, and an earlier version of this entry so asserted. A correspondent who thought to check discovered that the bug was not there. While investigating this in late 1990, your editor discovered that the NSWC still had the bug, but had unsuccessfully tried to get the Smithsonian to accept it -- and that the present curator of their History of American Technology Museum didn't know this and agreed that it would make a worthwhile exhibit. It was moved to the Smithsonian in mid-1991, but due to space and money constraints was not actually exhibited for years afterwards. Thus, the process of investigating the original-computer-bug bug fixed it in an entirely unexpected way, by making the myth true! --ESR] English Explanatory Dictionary (Synonyms) bug bʌɡ n. 1 insect, beetle, larva, grub, caterpillar, butterfly, mosquito, fly, spider, Colloq Brit creepy-crawly, US no-see-em: There's a bug on your collar. 2 microbe, germ, virus; disease, affliction, illness, sickness, ailment, disorder, malady, infection; condition, complaint, infirmity, indisposition: She's caught some kind of bug and won't be in for a few days. 3 obsession, craze, fad, mania, rage: Almost everyone in those days succumbed to the hula hoop bug. 4 enthusiast, faddist, fan, fanatic; hobbyist: She's turned into a fruit machine bug. 5 listening device; microphone, transmitter, electronic eavesdropper, tap: They planted a bug in the ambassador's telephone. 6 fault, error, mistake, failing, shortcoming, Colloq hang-up, glitch: There's a bug in the program that's preventing the list from being sorted. They can't market the device till they've ironed out all the bugs. --v. 7 annoy, irritate, pester, irk, harass, bother: I wish Mum'd stop bugging me about my homework. 8 tap, spy on: They bugged her phone and recorded all her conversations. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 381 Moby Thesaurus words for "bug": ALGOL, COBOL, FORTRAN, Mumbo Jumbo, abrade, addict, addle, addle the wits, adenovirus, aerobe, aerobic bacteria, aficionado, aggravate, agitate, alphabetic data, alphanumeric code, amoeba, anaerobe, anaerobic bacteria, angular data, annoy, apply pressure, arachnid, arthropod, assembler, attend, attend to, auscultate, bacillus, bacteria, bacterium, badger, bag, bait, ball up, balloon, be all ears, be at, becloud, bedazzle, bedevil, beetle, befuddle, belly, belly out, bend an ear, beset, besiege, bewilder, bigot, bilge, billow, binary digit, binary scale, binary system, bit, blandish, blemish, bogey, bogeyman, boggart, bogle, booger, boogerman, boogeyman, bother, bouge, bristle, brown off, buff, bugaboo, bugbear, bugger, bulge, bullyrag, burn up, buttonhole, byte, cajole, carp at, case, catch, caterpillar, centipede, chafe, chilopod, chivy, cloud, coax, coccus, cock the ears, collector, command pulses, commands, compiler, computer code, computer language, computer program, confuse, control signals, controlled quantity, convulse, correcting signals, crack, crank, craze, crazy fancy, daddy longlegs, data, daze, dazzle, defect, defection, deficiency, demon, devil, devotee, dilate, diplopod, discombobulate, discomfit, discompose, disconcert, disease-producing microorganism, disorganize, disorient, distemper, distend, distract, disturb, dog, drawback, dun, eager beaver, eavesdrop, echovirus, embarrass, embroil, energumen, entangle, enterovirus, enthusiasm, enthusiast, error, error signals, examine by ear, exasperate, exercise, exert pressure, faddist, failing, failure, fan, fanatic, fanatico, fascination, fash, fault, faute, fee-faw-fum, feedback pulses, feedback signals, fiend, film data, filterable virus, flaw, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fly, fog, foible, frailty, freak, fret, fret at, fuddle, fungus, furor, furore, fuss, fuss at, gall, germ, get, give attention, give audience to, give ear, goggle, gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, great one for, gripe, harass, hark, harry, harvestman, hassle, hear, hear out, hearken, heckle, hector, heed, henpeck, hexadecimal system, hexapod, hobbyist, hole, hound, imperfection, importune, inadequacy, infatuate, infatuation, infirmity, information, input data, input quantity, insect, instructions, intercept, irk, kink, larva, lend an ear, listen, listen at, listen in, listen to, little problem, lunatic fringe, machine language, maggot, make a reconnaissance, mania, maniac, manic-depressive psychosis, maze, message, microbe, microorganism, microphone, miff, mike, millepede, millipede, mist, mite, mix up, moider, mold, molest, monomaniac, muddle, multiple messages, nag, nag at, needle, nettle, nibble at, noise, nonfilterable virus, nudzh, numeric data, nut, nymph, octal system, oscillograph data, output data, output quantity, passion, pathogen, peck at, peep, peeve, perplex, persecute, perturb, pester, pick at, pick on, picornavirus, pique, plague, play, play the spy, pluck the beard, ply, polar data, pooch, pop, pother, pouch, pout, press, pressure, problem, protozoa, protozoon, provoke, psych, punch-card data, pursuer, push, put out, put under surveillance, radiomicrophone, rage, raise hell, random data, rattle, reconnoiter, rectangular data, reference quantity, reovirus, rhapsodist, rhinovirus, rickettsia, ride, rift, rile, roil, round out, ruffle, ruly English, scorpion, scout, scout out, shortcoming, signals, single messages, sit in on, snag, something missing, spider, spirillum, spirochete, spook, spore, spy, spy out, stake out, staphylococcus, streptococcus, sucker for, swell, swell out, taint, tap, tarantula, tease, throw, throw into confusion, tick, torment, trouble, try the patience, trypanosome, tweak the nose, unorganized data, unsettle, upset, urge, vex, vibrio, virus, visible-speech data, visionary, vulnerable place, watch, weak link, weak point, weakness, wheedle, wiretap, work on, worry, yap at, zealot |
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