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Fly vs Bug - What's the difference?

fly | bug |

As nouns the difference between fly and bug

is that fly is (zoology) any insect of the order diptera; characterized by having two wings, also called true flies or fly can be (obsolete) the action of flying; flight while bug is god.

As a verb fly

is to travel through the air, another gas or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface or fly can be (baseball) to hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out compare ground (verb) and line (verb).

As an adjective fly

is (slang|dated) quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp, smart (in a mental sense).

fly

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) . Cognate with Scots flee, Dutch vlieg, German Fliege, Swedish fluga.

Noun

(flies)
  • (zoology) Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings, also called true flies.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Douglas Larson, volume=100, issue=1, page=46, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Runaway Devils Lake , passage=Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies . […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.}}
  • (non-technical) Especially , any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies .}}
  • Any similar, but unrelated insect such as dragonfly or butterfly.
  • (fishing) A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
  • (weightlifting) A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
  • (obsolete) A witch's familiar.
  • * Ben Jonson
  • a trifling fly , none of your great familiars
  • (obsolete) A parasite.
  • (Massinger)
    Derived terms
    * blackfly * blowfly * botfly * caddis fly * cranefly * damselfly * dragonfly * drain fly * firefly * fly agaric * fly on the wall * flyswatter * flyweight * fruit fly * gadfly * greenfly * horsefly * housefly * hoverfly * march fly * mayfly * moth fly * no flies on * sandfly, sand fly * sawfly * warble fly * whitefly * wouldn't hurt a fly

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) flien, from (etyl) . More at flow.

    Verb

  • To travel through the air, another gas or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
  • *
  • Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= On a bright new wing , passage=Flying using only the power of the sun is an enticing prospect. But manned solar-powered aircraft are fragile and slow, […].}}
  • (ambitransitive, archaic, poetic) To flee, to escape (from).
  • * (John Dryden)
  • Sleep flies the wretch.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • to fly the favours of so good a king
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Whither shall I fly to escape their hands?
  • * (John Milton)
  • Fly , ere evil intercept thy flight.
  • *
  • He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. “Fly , you fools!” he cried, and was gone.
  • (ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
  • *
  • The brave black flag I fly .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= On a bright new wing , passage=A solar-powered unmanned aerial system (a UAS, more commonly called a drone) could fly long, lonely missions that conventional aircraft would not be capable of.}}
  • To be accepted, come about or work out.
  • To travel very fast.
  • * (John Milton)
  • Fly , envious Time, till thou run out thy race.
  • * Bryant
  • The dark waves murmured as the ships flew on.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , passage=After yet another missed penalty by Kvirikashvili from bang in front of the posts, England scored again, centre Tuilagi flying into the line and touching down under the bar.}}
  • To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
  • To hunt with a hawk.
  • (Francis Bacon)
    Synonyms
    * (travel through air) soar, hover, wing, skim, glide, ascend, rise, float, aviate * (flee) escape, flee, abscond
    Antonyms
    * (travel through air) walk * (flee) remain, stay
    Derived terms
    * fly a kite * fly-by-night * fly into a rage * fly like a bird * fly like a rock * fly like the wind * fly off the handle * fly out the window * on the fly * overfly

    Noun

    (flies)
  • (obsolete) The action of flying; flight.
  • An act of flying.
  • (baseball) A fly ball.
  • A type of small, fast carriage (sometimes pluralised flys).
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) , Folio Society 2008, p. 124:
  • As we left the house in my fly , which had been waiting, Van Helsing said:— ‘Tonight I can sleep in peace [...].’
  • * , chapter=16
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly , about anything.”}}
  • *1924 , (Ford Madox Ford), Some Do Not…'', Penguin 2012 (''Parade's End ), p. 54:
  • *:And, driving back in the fly , Macmaster said to himself that you couldn't call Mrs. Duchemin ordinary, at least.
  • A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.
  • A strip of material hiding the zipper, buttons etc. at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc.
  • The free edge of a flag.
  • The horizontal length of a flag.
  • Butterfly, a form of swimming.
  • (weightlifting) An exercise that involves wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders.
  • The part of a vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.
  • (nautical) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.
  • (Totten)
  • Two or more vanes set on a revolving axis, to act as a fanner, or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.
  • A heavy wheel, or cross arms with weights at the ends on a revolving axis, to regulate or equalize the motion of machinery by means of its inertia, where the power communicated, or the resistance to be overcome, is variable, as in the steam engine or the coining press. See fly wheel.
  • In a knitting machine, the piece hinged to the needle, which holds the engaged loop in position while the needle is penetrating another loop; a latch.
  • (Knight)
  • The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.
  • (weaving) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.
  • (Knight)
  • (printing, historical) The person who took the printed sheets from the press.
  • (printing, historical) A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power printing press for doing the same work.
  • One of the upper screens of a stage in a theatre.
  • Derived terms
    * flyman * fly-coach * fly system

    Verb

  • (baseball) To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).
  • Jones flied to right in his last at-bat.

    Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain; probably from the verb or noun.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (slang, dated) Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp, smart (in a mental sense).
  • be assured, O man of sin—pilferer of small wares and petty larcener—that there is an eye within keenly glancing from some loophole contrived between accordions and tin breastplates that watches your every movement, and is "fly,"— to use a term peculiarly comprehensible to dishonest minds—to the slightest gesture of illegal conveyancing. (Charles Dickens, "Arcadia"; Household Words Vol.7 p.381)
  • (slang) Well dressed, smart in appearance.
  • He's pretty fly .
  • (slang) Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.
  • bug

    English

    (wikipedia bug)

    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.
  • Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "bug": major, minor, serious, critical, nasty, annoying, important, strange, stupid, flying, silly.

    Synonyms

    * (An intercept device) wiretap * See also

    Derived terms

    * buglet * debug

    See also

    * Balmain bug * bedbug * bug-eyed * gold bug * lightning bug * mealybug * mirid bug * Morton Bay bug * shield bug * snug as a bug in a rug * travel bug * true bug

    Verb

  • (informal) To annoy.
  • Don’t bug me, I’m busy!
  • To install an electronic listening device or devices in.
  • We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * bug out

    See also

    {{projectlinks, pedia, page1=Hemiptera , species, page2=Hemiptera , commons, page3=Category:Hemiptera, label3=Hemiptera , pedia, page4=Software bug }}

    Anagrams

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