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Meaning of bug | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B1 Frequent
bʌɡ

Definitions

  1. An East European river which flows northwest 450 miles through Belarus, Poland and Ukraine into the Baltic Sea. (Western Bug).
  2. A Volkswagen Beetle car.
    US, slang
  3. A Bugatti car.
    slang
  4. An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
  5. ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Buginese
  6. A river in Ukraine (Southern Bug), flowing 530 miles to the Dnieper estuary.
  7. To grow large; bulge: My eyes bugged when I saw the mess.
  8. Any of various species of marine (saltwater or freshwater) crustaceans; e.g. a Moreton Bay bug, mudbug.
  9. An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”)
  10. To leave someone alone; go away.
  11. Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest.
    informal
  12. Any of various species of marine (saltwater or freshwater) crustaceans; e.g. a Moreton Bay bug, mudbug
  13. To impart useful information to (another) in a subtle, discreet way.
  14. Any minibeast.
    informal
  15. Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest
  16. put a bug in someone's ear, to give someone a subtle suggestion.
  17. Any insect, arachnid, myriapod or entognath.
    informal
  18. Any minibeast. Any insect, arachnid, myriapod or entognath. Any insect
  19. An insect, spider, or similar small organism. In strict scientific usage, a bug is an insect belonging to the order of the true bugs. See true bug.
  20. Any insect.
    informal
  21. A mistake in a program.
  22. A bedbug.
    UK, obsolete, specifically
  23. also Western Bug A river of eastern Europe rising in southwest Ukraine and flowing about 770 km (480 mi) through Poland to the Vistula River near Warsaw.
  24. A problem that needs fixing.
    jargon
  25. A contagious illness, or a pathogen causing it.
  26. also Southern Bug A river of southern Ukraine rising in the southwest part and flowing about 853 km (530 mi) generally southeast to the Black Sea.
  27. An enthusiasm for something; an obsession.
    informal
  28. An insect having mouthparts used for piercing and sucking, such as an aphid, a bedbug, or a stinkbug.
  29. A keen enthusiast or hobbyist.
    informal
  30. A disease-producing microorganism or agent: a flu bug.
  31. A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device
  32. A small and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.
  33. A lobster.
    Maine
  34. A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to identify the broadcasting network or cable channel.
  35. A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
  36. A semi-automated telegraph key.
  37. Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies.
    obsolete
  38. HIV.
  39. A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.
  40. A trilobite.
    slang
  41. Synonym of oil bug.
    US, dated, slang
  42. An asterisk denoting an apprentice jockey's weight allowance.
    US, slang
  43. A young apprentice jockey.
    US, broadly, slang
  44. Synonym of union bug.
  45. A small piece of metal used in a slot machine to block certain winning combinations.
    slang
  46. A metal clip attached to the underside of a table, etc. to hold hidden cards, as a form of cheating.
    slang

Equivalents

Afrikaans gogga insek
العربية البقّة خطأ
Беларуская памылка
Čeština brouk chyba moucha štěnice
Cymraeg llau lleuen pryf
Dansk insekt kryb
Esperanto cimo eraro fuŝo
Euskara zomorro
فارسی اشکال باگ
עברית באג ג׳וק חרק
Magyar bogár hiba
Bahasa Indonesia bug kekutu kutu serangga
Íslenska böggur lús padda
한국어 도청기 도청장치 버그 벌레
Kurdî bo bugî hîba logo lûs vîrus
Latina cimex piget taedet
Latviešu kukainis
Македонски бубачка грешка
Malti infezzjoni
Nederlands beestje bug insect wants
Slovenčina chyba
Slovenščina hrošč stenica
Svenska bacill bugg bugga kryp störa
Kiswahili mdudu
Tagalog gagapang
Українська Буг комаха помилка
Tiếng Việt bọ loi

Examples

“Bugs, oysters, prawns and crabs […] are plated up on the decks of four side-by-side trawlers bobbing on the calm waters of Trinity Inlet.”
“These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.”
“A: Eew, what is that thing?! Is that a bug?! B: No, it's a spider. And don't worry: she's not gonna hurt you.”
“Speaking of advertising changes of name, a title by which those lodging-house pests, bugs, are now often known, that of Norfolk Howards, is derived from an advertisement in which one Ephraim Bug avowed his intention of being for the future known as Norfolk Howard.”
“Bugs are generated from the moisture of living animals, as it dries up outside their bodies. Lice are generated out of the flesh of animals.”
“The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 3.”
“I have the right principle and am on the right track, but time, hard work and some good luck are necessary too. It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise — this thing gives out and [it is] then that "Bugs" — as such little faults and difficulties are called — show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached.”
“A... leading aluminum producer claims it has worked all the bugs out of building and servicing aluminum radiators, says it hopes to have a large chunk of the radiator market by the early nineteen seventies.”
“He's got the flu bug.”
“I caught the skiing bug while staying in the Alps.”
“As we rode in the bus in the weird phosphorescent void of the Lincoln Tunnel we leaned on each other with fingers waving and yelled and talked excitedly, and I was beginning to get the bug like Dean.”
“His mother had been a bug on astrology, which was why the moment of his birth had been impressed on him so exactly.”
“Incidentally, the camera manufacturers have had a new worry—that they might "kill off the hobby," as U.S. Camera magazine put it recently—by automating to the point that real camera bugs would feel no challenge.”
“We installed a bug in her telephone.”
“He suspected the image was a Web bug used for determining who was visiting the site.”
“Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show.”
“The score bug displays the current football score over the ongoing match.”
“You look up the proper speed for the phase of flight, set the reminder bug, and then literally forget the speed. You don't read the airspeed number, you fly to the bug.”
“At this point your telegraph operator, sitting at your right, goes "Ticky-tick-tickety-de-tick-tick," with his bug, as he calls his transmitter, and looks at you expectantly.”
“As far as the dashes are concerned, the bug is the same in operation as any regular key would be if it were turned up on edge instead of sitting flat on the desk.”
“I was a very good radio operator. I bought my own bug. That's what the telegraph key in its modern form was called. It was semiautomatic.”
“Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek.”
“The arguably most debated bareback practice that came to attract attention early on (and still does) was that of "bug chasing," in which HIV-negative men (bug chasers) actively seek out sex with HIV-positive men (gift givers).”
“We asked Harris if he had any recommendations about seeing the famous trilobite digs. He said we should just drive out to his claim in the Wheeler Quadrangle, and it was just fine with him if we dug a few bugs.”
“Now, only three years later, most of the major oil companies maintain staffs of these men who examine cores, classify the various types of "bugs," or foraminifera, and make charts showing the depths at which each of the hundreds of types is found.”
“The "bugs" are the asterisks next to the apprentice's name. One bug is a five-pound allowance, two bugs equal seven pounds, and three bugs equal ten pounds.”
“Because many illegal slot-machine operators here and abroad do not like to give the slot-machine player even one chance to hit the jackpot or the big bonus, they make use of a "bug." This is a small, flat half-circle of iron about an inch long, which looks something like a bug.”
“Some clumsy or audacious sharpers will go so far as to hold out cards in their lap, or stick them in a "bug" under the table.”
“Fargo had been in a saloon in Kansas when a man was caught using a bug. Made of steel and shaped like a money clip with two sharp ends, the bug was jammed under a table and held cards the bug's owner palmed until they were needed.”

CEFR level

B1
Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B1 vocabulary — intermediate level.
See all B1 English words →

See also

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