Your ShelfYour Projects
Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Bug

Bŭg, n.

noun

[Perhaps from W. bwg, hobgoblin, scare-crow, as it is a nasty and terrifying insect; or allied to Armor. pouch, dirty, ugly. See infra.]

  1. An insect of many species.
  2. (Entom.) An insect of the genus, or family, Cimex, of which several hundred species are described. They belong to the order Hemiptera, and have a beaked or sucking mouth.

Bŭg or Bŭg'bear or Bŭg'a-bōō, n.

noun

n. [W. bug, bugan, hobgoblin, scare-crow, bugbear, from bw, a threatening or terrifying object, terror.] Something frightful, as a specter; any thing imaginary that causes needless fright; something used to excite needless fear.

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

To the world, no bugbear is so great, As want of figure, and a small estate. Pope.

Take you abroad! Indeed not I; For all the bugbears to fright ye. Lloyd.

Also printed under this word