Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a person, esp. one who puts on airs; thus bug’s words, boasting language.

1546		J. Heywood Proverbs II Ch. v: But all be bugs words, that I speake to spare. / Better space at brym than at bottom, saye I.
1687		C. Sedley Bellamira I i: Did I say such bug-words?
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 138: He damns all the other writers of the age [...] a fifth, who presumed to make strictures upon one of his performances, he holds as a bug in criticism.
1834		Morning Courier and N.Y. Enquirer 5 June 2/2: Three young bugs have been committed to prison, in Halliwell, Me, for breaking into the Methodist and Unitarian churches of that town, and destroying books, cushions, &c.
1839		Northern Liberator (Tyne & Wear) 16 Nov. 4/5: A set of corrupt, fat-headed [...] muddy brained [...] purse-proud, base, ignorant, un-English fellows [...] this collection of red-faced and pimple-nosed fat-bugs.
1840		‘Queen’s Wants at Childbirth’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 61: There’ll be all my friends from Germany / Coburgs and all the bugs to tea.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 15 Nov. 3/1: Bad luck to the bugs.
1875		F.H. Sheppard Love Afloat 271: He was too big a bug to spend his time learnin’ niggers.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 9/1: Moral: This being a Democratic country, always get solid with the titled bugs of the earth, that thy days may be long in the land, &c.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 25: bug, n. [...] [A proud, conceited person. Cent. Dict.] [2. A ‘swell’ (slang). Murray].
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 8/2: One of the curses of Melbourne is the old bugs who hang on to all the boss directorships going.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. ix: The Dutchman in the delicatessen don’t think you are a bug when you ask for Summer sausage.
1919		Dundee Courier 7 July 4/3: The city Wise Bugs have got the poet wrong.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 72: The old man isn’t long on social stunts [...] one of those must-have-nine-hours’-sleep bugs.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 58: The Snake’s a small bug [...] You’re big, and I’m going to see that our contribution is in proportion.
1938		N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 22: These church bugs belong to the tennis club.
1952		C. Brossard Redemption in G. Feldman (ed.) Protest (1960) 120: You can tell that police bug to shove it.
1957		A. La Guma ‘Nocturne’ in Malan (1994) 21: High bugs go to the City Hall to hear it.
1966		F. Elli Riot (1967) 147: I’ll stomp his hands to a pulp right here. The bug’s not plantin’ a blade in my back.
1977		J. Sikakane Window on Soweto 9: The ghetto dwellers generally refer to Dube Township as [...] the suburb of the ‘highbugs’, ‘tycoons’ and ‘socialites’.
1983		(con. 1940s) D. Nobbs Second From Last in the Sack Race 167: Suddenly a cry rent the air. ‘All new-bugs to the shower room.’.
1996		A. Close Official and Doubtful 166: I can see he’s an ugly bug and I’m his mother.

2. (US) an insignificant person; an irritating person.

1866		Sportsman 17 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] There was a duel the other day between two irritable scribes of minor repute, owing one having called the other ‘a bug’ in print.
1921		Wash. Herald (DC) 18 Dec. 56/3: [cartoon caption] Better keep running, you bug!
1952		W.D. Overholser Fabulous Gunman 40: The ‘miserable bug of a man,’ determined to show everybody that he was more than Nita thought he was.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS.

3. see boog n.

4. (UK school) a (usu. male) pupil, generally qualified by an adj.

2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 146: [H]is people hadn’t paid the fees for a year [...] Weasel was going to have to be a grammar bug.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 153: There was a Jewboy in the school. He had crept in unmentioned [...] To me, being so blessed, the newbug’s race was clear.