[buhg] 
noun, verb, bugged, bug⋅ging.| 1. | Also called true bug, hemipteran, hemipteron. a hemipterous insect. |
| 2. | (loosely) any insect or insectlike invertebrate. |
| 3. | Informal. any microorganism, esp. a virus: He was laid up for a week by an intestinal bug. |
| 4. | Informal. a defect or imperfection, as in a mechanical device, computer program, or plan; glitch: The test flight discovered the bugs in the new plane. |
| 5. | Informal.
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| 6. | Informal.
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| 7. | a mark, as an asterisk, that indicates a particular item, level, etc. |
| 8. | Horse Racing. the five-pound weight allowance that can be claimed by an apprentice jockey. |
| 9. | a telegraph key that automatically transmits a series of dots when moved to one side and one dash when moved to the other. |
| 10. | Poker Slang. a joker that can be used only as an ace or as a wild card to fill a straight or a flush. |
| 11. | Printing. a label printed on certain matter to indicate that it was produced by a union shop. |
| 12. | any of various fishing plugs resembling an insect. |
| 13. | Chiefly British. a bedbug. |
| 14. | to install a secret listening device in (a room, building, etc.) or on (a telephone or other device): The phone had been bugged. |
| 15. | to bother; annoy; pester: She's bugging him to get her into show business. |
| 16. | bug off, Slang. to leave or depart, esp. rapidly: I can't help you, so bug off. |
| 17. | bug out, Slang. to flee in panic; show panic or alarm. |
| 18. | put a bug in someone's ear, to give someone a subtle suggestion; hint: We put a bug in his ear about a new gymnasium. |
| true bug n. A wingless or four-winged insect of the order Hemiptera, especially of the suborder Heteroptera, including the bedbug, louse, and chinch bug, having mouthparts adapted for piercing and sucking. |
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
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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." |
true bug (tr ) Pronunciation Key
Any of various insects of the group Heteroptera. True bugs usually have soft flat bodies, well-developed antennae, and stink glands. They include the water bugs, water striders, bedbugs, cinch bugs, lace bugs, and assassin bugs. Some scientists classify the true bugs as a suborder of the order Hemiptera rather than as a separate insect order. See Note at bug. |
true bug
any member of the insect order Heteroptera, which comprises the so-called true bugs. (Some authorities use the name Hemiptera; others consider both the heteropterans and the homopterans to be suborders of the Hemiptera.) This large group of insects, consisting of more than 40,000 species, can be recognized by an X-shaped design on the back, which is formed by the wings at rest. A combination of features-sucking mouthparts adapted to pierce plant or animal tissues and a hardened gula (underside of the head)-separate the heteropterans from all other insect orders. Although most species of Heteroptera are terrestrial, a few are aquatic. Some species, which feed on plant juices, are serious pests of cultivated crops; other species are predacious and benefit man by destroying various pests. There also are heteropterans that act as carriers of disease.
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