| a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. |
| an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance. |
bug (bŭg)
n.
A true bug, specifically one having a beaklike structure that allows piercing and sucking.
An insect or similar organism, such as a centipede or an earwig.
A disease-producing microorganism, such as a flu bug.
The illness or disease so produced.
A defect or difficulty, as in a system or design.
bug (bŭg) Pronunciation Key
Our Living Language : 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." |
A generic term that describes a malfunction of undetermined origin in a computer or other electronic device.
Note: The term originated in the 1940s when the examination of a large computer revealed that an actual insect had landed on one of the circuits, shorting it out and shutting the machine down.
bug definition
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