Noun

(en noun)

An insect of the order Hemiptera (the "true bugs").

(colloquial) Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest.

These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.

Various species of marine or freshwater crustaceans; e.g. a Morton Bay bug, mudbug.

A problem that needs fixing, especially in computing.

The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 5.

* {{quote-book, year= 1878

, year_published= 1989 , quotee= (Thomas Edison) , author= Thomas P. Hughes , quoted_in= American Genesis: A History of the American Genius for Invention , url= , title=Edison to Puskas, 13 November 1878, Edison papers , type= cited by , chapter= , section= , isbn= 0-14-009741-4 , edition= , publisher= Penguin Books , location= Edison National Laboratory, U.S. National Park Service, West Orange, N.J. , editor= , volume= , page= 75 , passage= 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 contagious illness; a bacterium or virus causing it

He’s got the flu bug .

An enthusiasm for something; an obsession

I think he’s a gold bug , he has over 10,000 ounces in storage.

to catch the skiing bug

An electronic intercept device

We installed a bug in her telephone

A small and and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.

He suspected the image was a web bug used for determining who was visiting the site.

(broadcasting) A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to indicate what network or cable channel is televising it

Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show

(aviation) A manually positioned marker in flight instruments

A semi-automated telegraph key

* 1938 , Paul Gallico, Farewell to Sport , page 257:

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.

* 1942 , Arthur Reinhold Nilson, Radio Code Manual , page 134:

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.

* 1986 , E. L. Doctorow, World's Fair , page 282:

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.

(obsolete) A bugbear; anything that terrifies.

* Shakespeare

Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek.

HIV.

(poker) A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.

Noun

(en noun)

A partial covering for a floor.

(UK, Australia) A (usually thick) piece of fabric used for warmth (especially on a bed); a blanket.

* 1855 , , A Boy?s Adventures in the Wilds of Australia: or, Herbert?s Note-Book , page 254,

They then cut down a quantity of gum-tree leaves for a bed, and threw their rugs upon them ready for bed-time.

* 1906 July 27, Government Gazette of Western Australia , page 2297,

Furnish every sleeping apartment with a sufficient number of toilet utensils and bedsteads, and sufficient bedding so that each bed shall be provided with a mattress, two sheets, a rug', and, in winter time, not less than one additional ' rug .

* 1950 April, Dental Journal of Australia , Volume 22, page 181,

My own son had a bunny rug' of which he was very fond and on being put to bed he would always demand his “bunny ' rug to suck his finger with.?

* 1997 , Alan Sharpe, Vivien Encel, Murder!: 25 True Australian Crimes , page 22,

He brought with him a rug and a sheet, and lay down by the fire.

A kind of coarse, heavy frieze, formerly used for clothing.

* Holinshed

They spin the choicest rug' in Ireland. A friend of mine repaired to Paris Garden clad in one of these Waterford ' rugs .

A rough, woolly, or shaggy dog.

(slang) A wig; a hairpiece.