▪ I.buggy,n.|ˈbʌgɪ|[Etymology unknown: the word has been conjecturally connected with bogie; also with bug(seeesp.quot.1773). There is no ground for supposing it to be of Anglo-Indian origin.]1. a.A light one-horse (sometimes two-horse) vehicle, for one or two persons. Those in use in America have four wheels; those in England and India, two; in India there is a hood. (In recent use,esp.inU.S., India, and former British colonies.)1773Gentl.Mag.XLIII. 297Driving a post coach and four against a single horse chaise, throwing out the driver of it, and breaking the chaise to pieces..ludicrously denominating mischief of this kind, ‘Running down the Buggies’.
1778Ann.Reg.197 The SuicideProl.,Buggies, timwhiskies or squeezed vis-a-vis.
1782IndiaGaz.14 Sept. (Y.)An excellent Buggy Horse about 15 Hands high.
1794W. FeltonCarriages (1801) II. 183The Buggy is a small chaise, made to carry one person only.
1825Annals Sporting vii. 59The speed and pluck of their buggy horses.
1844DisraeliConingsby xiv. (L.)Villebecque prevailed upon Flora to drive with him to the race in a buggy he borrowed of the steward.
1859LangWand. India 287We drove as far as Deobund in the buggy.
1862B. TaylorHome &Abr.Ser.ii. ii. 4. 93,I asked for a two-horse buggy and driver.
1866Geo.Eliot F. Holt III. 166See that somebody takes her back..in the buggy.
b.Extended to various other vehicles or the like, as: (a) a perambulator(seebaby buggy); (b)=caboose 2; (c) an automobile. slang (orig.U.S.).1890[see babyn.B. 2].
1894St.Paul's 11 Aug. p. ii (Advt.),Safety perambulators... Coach-panel ‘Buggy’ mail cart,..33/- to 5 guineas.
1899Boston Globe 18 Mar. 12/2Estimating the total length of these[freight]cars, with the engines and buggies.
1911Jrnl.Amer.Med.Assoc.LVI. xiv. p. vi/2My use of this motor buggy has shown me that the auto is a good thing for either city or country.
1929Nebraska Alumnus June 166A doll bed and dresser and buggy with several dolls and their wardrobes.
1931G. IrwinAmer.Tramp & Underworld Slang 39Buggy, an automobile; a contraction of the term ‘gasoline buggy’, by which the earlier automobiles were known.
1949J. CreaseyBattle for Insp. West xiii. 119‘Come on,’ he said, ‘you're changing buggies.’ Grant hesitated; rain splashed into the car.
1961Economist 27 May 918/1The green fees, he said, were a bit stiff, and the electric buggies cost $14 a day.
2.In technical uses: seequots.(Cf.bogie.)1861RaymondMiningGloss.,Buggy, a small mine-wagon holding ½ ton to 1 ton of coal.
1883Harper'sMag.939/2The men..go out..on the strand in a ‘buggy’..which is a board seat slung by ropes from the axis of a grooved wheel fitting and travelling on the strand.
3.Comb., as buggy-boat, a boat made so that wheels can be fastened to it, so as to make it into a land-vehicle; buggy-cultivator, buggy-plough, a plough having a seat for the ploughman to ride on; buggy-rideorig.U.S., a ride on a buggy;esp.incolloq.fig.expression of gratitude thanks for the buggy-ride.1862G. W. WilderMS.Diary 16 Jan. (D.A.E.),The officers took a buggy ride; joy go with them.
1865Trans.Ill.Agric.Soc.1863 V. 255The one on the gang plow would have a fine buggy ride.
1926–7inShopper's View of Canada's Past (1969) 261Records..Thanks for the Buggy Ride—Fox Trot.
1938N. MarshArtists in Crime xv. 231When the spot of trouble comes along it's ‘Thanks for the buggy ride, it was OK while it lasted’.
▪ II.ˈbuggy,a.[f.bugn.2 + -y1.]Infested with bugs.1714Phil.Trans.XXIX. 65With a black Speck, as buggy Peas had.
1730SouthallBugs 35When they have taken it[old Furniture]down, because it was buggy.
1854BadhamHalieut. 207One of those provisionless Sicilian locande, boasting..a thunny supper and a buggy bed.
▸ Computing. Of software: prone to malfunction; containing errors or bugs.Cf.bugn.2 3b.1977M. A. BodenArtific.Intelligence &Nat.Man x. 290By investigating the purposive structure of the buggy program..hacker decides that this bug manifestation at runtime is caused by an underlying prerequisite-missing bug in the program's structure.
198280 Microcomputing Jan. 335/2As it stands now.., it is a very buggy program.
1990DailyTel.29 May 27/8Dos Version 4 had an undeserved reputation for being buggy.
2004Dr. K.Hackers' TalesIntrod.15Of course, they're never going to tackle the real problem; buggy and misconfigured software that is insecure out of the box.
