Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. infuriated, angry.

1947		Kerouac letter 13 Sept. in Charters I (1995) 125: I am bugged because I can’t use that wonderful typewriter here.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 177: Now, man, I know you’re probably real bugged; you just got to town and we get thrown out.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 53: I acted like I didn’t believe a word. But all the time I was bugged-up.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 103: The comedian is bugged [...] and he talks to the agent.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 207: The beef between Saso and Pachanga had me bugged.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 60: Colt was bugged, man, he would do anything.
2001		Source Aug. 212: I get bugged out when somebody say they a real big fan of mine.

2. (also bugged out) of a person or situation, crazy, insane, mentally unstable.

1949		Hal Ellson Duke ix: Bugged up – crazy or to act in a like manner.
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 181: She’s a sad girl; she’s bugged up.
1959		L. Lipton Holy Barbarians 315: Bugged – Bothered, bedeviled, unstrung.
1961		R.A. Norton Through Beatnik Eyeballs 80: I told her she was crazy and bugged.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 51: I flew off the handle because I had a terrible migraine headache – I go crazy when I get a migraine [...] I was so bugged I just got hysterical.
1995		(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 236: She wanted to get dressed to go to Jackie’s house, right then and there, to fuck her up [...] I was like, ‘Oh shit! This is bugged.’.
2001		A. Schulman 23rd Precinct 75: ‘Police? I don’t mess with those guys. [...] They’ll come and harm you if you don’t have nothing’.

3. frightened.

1949		Hal Ellson Duke 124: For a minute I was bugged up, puzzled.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 153: I’m bugged. Do you get bugged sometimes? Stuff gets you like that sometimes — it scares you.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 239: There was a tremor in his hand [...] He was bugged.

4. (US black/drugs) experiencing a sense of paranoia after smoking strong marijuana or crack cocaine.

1993		R. Shell Iced 72: I was wired and bugged [...] crouched down on the floor in a Kamikaze-paranoid fear.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 bugged out Definition: being or becoming paranoid. Usually from drugs. Example: Yo, was that shit good, I was bugged out for hours.

5. fashionably weird.

2000

Observer Mag. 27 Feb. 23: ‘It’s chillin’,’ he says. ‘It’s bugged. It’s the real joint, OK?’.