buggy meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

buggy

noun

UK /ˈbʌ.ɡi/

Etymology Origin unknown.

A small horse-drawn cart.

I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

A small motor vehicle, such as a dune buggy.

I casually let this information drop as our concierge drives us through the resort in a buggy, a frangipani flower tucked behind his ear. He promises to fix the bug problem and drops us off at the lobby.2022 November 26, Virginia Feito, “Sweating Through a Honeymoon in Paradise”, in The New York Times:

A hearse.

1920's arr: Jimmie Rogers Frankie and Johnnie Bring out the rubber tired buggy/Bring out the rubber tired hack/I'm takin' my Johnny to the graveyard/But I ain't gonna bring him back

Pennsylvania, UK, Western A pushchair; a stroller.

The wider station upgrade has provided lifts to the Piccadilly and Victoria lines, as well as Network Rail platforms, to make it easier for passengers with mobility needs, buggies or heavy luggage to use London Underground.2020 January 2, “New entrance at Finsbury Park”, in Rail, page 12:

Derived terms: baby buggy, band-aid buggy, beach buggy, blitzbuggy, buggyman, buggy whip, bundle buggy, Concord buggy, golf buggy, horse and buggy, Irish buggy, moon buggy, Moon buggy, punch buggy, rubber baby buggy bumper, sand buggy, struggle-buggy, truggy, unbuggy

adj

Etymology From bug + -y.

Infested with insects.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Containing programming errors.

Resembling an insect.

Slang Crazy; bughouse.

You have to help me get out of here. They want to keep me longer, but I can't stay. This place is driving me buggy.2011, Beverley Armstrong-Rodman, Nightmare in the Everglades, page 106:
Posting the selfies on Instagram, where limbs are noodly or eyes are buggy, is meant to be silly, making it seem like the photographers take themselves — and social media — less seriously.2022 July 3, Kalley Huang, “The Rise of the 0.5 Selfie”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2025: