bug Synonyms & Antonyms

Bug in a Sentence

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.

The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 3.

He's got the flu bug.

I caught the skiing bug while staying in the Alps.

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.

Don’t bug me, I’m busy!

I'm worried about Wallace. He's been buggin' all week.

We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.

He’s got the flu bug.

The software was full of bugs.

a flu bug

a camera bug

Don't bug me with petty details.

His eyes were bugged with horror.

a camera bug who loves taking candid shots at fairs and festivals

I can't go to work today because I've caught some bug that's going around

these incessant phone calls are really starting to bug me

I hate to bug you, but could you help me move this table?

Word Forms & Grammar

bugs

bug

true bug

bugged

bug·ging

bugging

Bug

bug (plural bugs)

bug (third-person singular simple present bugs, present participle bugging, simple past and past participle bugged)

Words That Rhyme With Bug

Origin of Bug

Origin 1: origin unknown

Origin 2: probably from bug:1

Origin 3: Middle English bugge hobgoblin; probably akin to Low German bögge goblin

Origin 4: First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a “bedbug”), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), from Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”) which is traced alternatively to:

Origin 5: For the “insect” meaning the assonance with Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda, from Proto-West Germanic *buʀdō, from Proto-Germanic *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above, might have played a role. Compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”), Icelandic budda (“purse”). More at bud. But ultimately this convergence of meaning doesn't prove a conflation of the two terms; they might have existed in parallel since PIE times with similar meanings, even if unnoticed by literary sources.

Origin 6: The term is used to refer to technical errors and problems at least as early as the 19th century, predating the commonly known story of a moth being caught in a computer.

First Known Use

1594

1928t

1865t

15th century