Thursday December 22, 2005
Creepy crawlies
By S.H. LOKE
Some of these creepy crawlies have crept into our vocabulary. They enrich our language, and these expressions are not altogether creepy.
A bug is an illness which is caused by small organisms such as bacteria. He caught the flu bug when he was travelling on a crowded bus.
If there is a bug in a computer programme, there is a mistake in it.
If your phone is bugged, there is a tiny hidden microphone in it, to transmit what people are saying.
When someone suddenly becomes very enthusiastic about something, you can say he has been bitten by a particular bug. My father has been bitten by the travelling bug.
If someone or something bugs you, they worry or annoy you. Please do not bug me about dyeing my hair.
A mite means to a small extent or degree. I feel just a mite uneasy about borrowing his car.
When someone is described as a mite, he is an insignificant person.
If you describe something like handwriting as spidery, you mean that it has thin, pointed lines. I recognised her spidery handwriting on the envelope.
If you take a slug of an alcoholic drink, you consume a large mouthful of it.
Then if you slug someone you hit them hard.
Someone is described as sluggish if he moves, works or reacts slower than normal. Without exercise I feel rather sluggish.
At a snail’s pace means very slowly. Traffic moves at a snail’s pace during peak hours.
To worm is to move slowly or with difficulty. He wormed his way through the lotus pond.
Pauline has wormed her way into her mother-in-law’s heart. She wormed some family secrets out of her mother-in-law. This means that Pauline has worked her way into her mother-in-law’s affection for her own gain. She managed to get information from her mother-in-law by using flattery.
To worm an animal is to rid it of worms. I worm my dog twice a year.
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