bug

/bəg/

/bəg/

Other forms: bugs; bugging; bugged

A bug is an insect. You might refuse to go camping because of your intense dislike for bugs. Bug can also be a verb meaning "annoy." Most likely, bugs bug you.

There are bugs you can see, like bees, and bugs that are much smaller, like viruses and bacteria. If you get one of these microscopic bugs, it means you're sick. You can also say, casually, "I've caught the model train bug — I'm hooked!" A microphone that's hidden in someone's home or telephone is also a bug, named after its small size. To bug someone means either to spy on them, or simply to bother them relentlessly.

Definitions of bug

1. noun

   general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate
   type of:

   insect

   a small creature with six legs, three body fragments, two antennae, and usually wings belonging in the Arthropoda phylum
2. noun

   insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis
   synonyms: hemipteran, hemipteron, hemipterous insect

   types:

   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

   Cimex lectularius, bed bug, bedbug, chinch

   an insect that invades homes, usually infests beds and feeds on human and animal blood

   Notonecta undulata, backswimmer

   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

   capsid, mirid, mirid bug

   a variety of leaf bug

   lace bug

   small bug having body and wings covered with a lacy network of raised lines

   Blissus leucopterus, chinch bug

   small black-and-white insect that feeds on cereal grasses

   Anasa tristis, squash bug

   large black American bug that sucks sap of vines of the gourd family

   leaf-foot bug, leaf-footed bug

   large sap-sucking bug with leaflike expansions on the legs

   type of:

   insect

   a small creature with six legs, three body fragments, two antennae, and usually wings belonging in the Arthropoda phylum
3. noun

   a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use
   synonyms: germ, microbe

   type of:

   micro-organism, microorganism

   any living thing that is too small to be seen with the naked eye
4. verb

   annoy persistently
   synonyms: badger, beleaguer, pester, tease

   type of:

   bedevil, crucify, dun, frustrate, rag, torment

   treat cruelly
5. noun

   a small hidden microphone; for listening secretly
   type of:

   microphone, mike

   a device used in recording or amplifying sound by changing the sound waves into an electrical signal
6. verb

   tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information
   “Is this hotel room bugged?”

   synonyms: intercept, tap, wiretap

   type of:

   eavesdrop, listen in

   listen without the speaker's knowledge
7. noun

   a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine
   synonyms: glitch

   type of:

   defect, fault, flaw

   an imperfection in an object or machine