| / English Dictionary |
BUG
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: bugged , bugging
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("bug" is a kind of...):
micro-organism; microorganism (any organism of microscopic size)
Sense 2
Meaning:
General term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate
Classified under:
Nouns denoting animals
Hypernyms ("bug" is a kind of...):
insect (small air-breathing arthropod)
Derivation:
buggy (infested with bugs)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis
Synonyms:
bug; hemipteran; hemipteron; hemipterous insect
Classified under:
Nouns denoting animals
Hypernyms ("bug" is a kind of...):
insect (small air-breathing arthropod)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bug"):
leaf bug; plant bug (small bright-colored insect that feeds on plant juices)
lygaeid; lygaeid bug (a true bug: usually bright-colored; pest of cultivated crops and some fruit trees)
coreid; coreid bug (a true bug)
bed bug; bedbug; chinch; Cimex lectularius (bug of temperate regions that infests especially beds and feeds on human blood)
backswimmer; Notonecta undulata (predaceous aquatic insect that swims on its back and may inflict painful bites)
true bug (any of various insects of the order Hemiptera and especially of the suborder Heteroptera)
Holonyms ("bug" is a member of...):
Hemiptera; order Hemiptera (plant bugs; bedbugs; some true bugs; also includes suborders Heteroptera (true bugs) and Homoptera (e.g., aphids, plant lice and cicadas))
Sense 4
Meaning:
A small hidden microphone; for listening secretly
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("bug" is a kind of...):
mic; microphone; mike (device for converting sound waves into electrical energy)
Derivation:
bug (tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine
Synonyms:
bug; glitch
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("bug" is a kind of...):
defect; fault; flaw (an imperfection in an object or machine)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they bug ... he / she / it bugs
Past simple: bugged
Past participle: bugged
-ing form: bugging
Sense 1
Meaning:
Annoy persistently
Example:
The children teased the boy because of his stammer
Synonyms:
badger; beleaguer; bug; pester; tease
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "bug" is one way to...):
bedevil; crucify; dun; frustrate; rag; torment (treat cruelly)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Sentence example:
They bug him to write the letter
Sense 2
Meaning:
Tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information
Example:
Is this hotel room bugged?
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "bug" is one way to...):
eavesdrop; listen in (listen without the speaker's knowledge)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sentence example:
They want to bug the prisoners
Derivation:
bug (a small hidden microphone; for listening secretly)
Context examples:
Ask IT to be sure all software is up to date, with bugs fixed and backups performed.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
A taxonomic class of arthropods that includes praying mantises, dragonflies, grasshoppers, true bugs, flies, bees, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and beetles.
(Insect, NCI Thesaurus)
The research team wanted to take the genes from Cyanothece, responsible for this day-night mechanism, and put them into another type of cyanobacteria, Synechocystis, to coax this bug into fixing nitrogen from the air, too.
(Bacteria Used to Create Fertilizer Out of Thin Air, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
"This will serve me a lesson," said he, "to look where I step. For if I should kill another bug or beetle I should surely cry again, and crying rusts my jaws so that I cannot speak."
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
Laurie and Jo rowed one boat, Mr. Brooke and Ned the other, while Fred Vaughn, the riotous twin, did his best to upset both by paddling about in a wherry like a disturbed water bug.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
These findings suggest that in addition to identifying the type of infection, it may also be important to know if it is coming on the heels of an earlier bug because that may affect how the system responds.
(Meningitis changes immune cell makeup in the mouse brain lining, National Institutes of Health)
Beware of scammers who call you and say they need access to your computer to fix a bug in a program. Hang up!
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Against bed bugs and ticks, DEET lost its effectiveness after about three days, while the coconut oil compound lasted for about two weeks.
(Coconut Oil Compounds Repel Insects Better than DEET, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
There is a white man come to this village. He does not seek after gold in the ground, nor after furs in the forest. All the time does he seek after bugs and flies.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
At half after five I went below to set the cabin table, but I hardly knew what I did, for my eyes and my brain were filled with the vision of a man, white-faced and trembling, comically like a bug, clinging to the thrashing gaff.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
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