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. You don't have to have nothing in your pocket. They're bugged out. 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?’.