n. 1 insect, beetle, larva, grub, caterpillar, butterfly, mosquito, fly, spider, Colloq Brit creepy-crawly, US no-see-em There's a bug on your collar 2 microbe, germ, virus; disease, affliction, illness, sickness, ailment, disorder, malady, infection; condition, complaint, infirmity, indisposition She's caught some kind of bug and won't be in for a few days 3 obsession, craze, fad, mania, rage Almost everyone in those days succumbed to the hula hoop bug 4 enthusiast, faddist, fan, fanatic; hobbyist She's turned into a fruit machine bug 5 listening device; microphone, transmitter, electronic eavesdropper, tap They planted a bug in the ambassador's telephone 6 fault, error, mistake, failing, shortcoming, Colloq hang-up, glitch There's a bug in the program that's preventing the list from being sorted They can't market the device till they've ironed out all the bugs.
v. 7 annoy, irritate, pester, irk, harass, bother I wish Mum'd stop bugging me about my homework 8 tap, spy on They bugged her phone and recorded all her conversations