BUGGING OUT Synonyms: 109 Similar and Opposite Words

bugging out

verb

present participle of bug out

as in retreating

to hasten away from something dangerous or frightening the ground soldiers bugged out just before the start of the aerial bombing

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in departing

to leave a place often for another the strange visitor bugged out without so much as saying a word

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of bugging out There’s a wonderful small moment midway through the season where Reilly’s lightly bugging out in his dingy apartment, shaking out his limbs at sharp, insectile angles to get comfortable. — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 26 May 2026 Her baby's father answered the door with his eyes bugging out, and Frierson barged in to find two other guys, needles, spoons and powder on the table. — Brad Schmitt, The Tennessean, 21 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bugging out

Verb

Many have reacted by retreating, focusing on cultivating niche audiences.

— Max Tani, semafor.com, 25 Oct. 2026
Longtime collaborator Erik Blood foregrounds Butler’s dry drum machines in the mix, letting every other element shuffle around them, snaking toward the spotlight for a brief moment and retreating back into the brume.

— Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of retreating

Verb

Meanwhile, Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said Friday afternoon that all four Moscow airports -- Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky -- stopped flights arriving and departing for security reasons.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 24 Oct. 2026
Paramount+ head of originals Jane Wiseman is departing the streamer as the post-merger combination of it and HBO Max takes shape.

— Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of departing

Verb

Instead of stopping to help Batani-Khalfani, police alleged that Cardenas continued driving, fleeing the scene of the hit-and-run crash.

— Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
Hollywood jobs have been fleeing for years for cheaper filming locales, and the restaurant industry has been shaken by mounting closures.

— ABC News, ABC News, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of fleeing

Verb

To be sure, the exiting attorneys were motivated to depart by a range of reasons.

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Oct. 2026
Travelers headed to the Napa Valley or Sonoma County coast can make a fairly easy diversion by exiting Interstate 80 about 6 miles north of Highway 37.

— Madison Smalstig, Sacbee.com, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of exiting

Verb

Reporting from Tel Aviv Shlomit Ofir is one of the many Israelis flying in from abroad to cast their votes in today’s election.

— Yarden Segev, NBC news, 27 Oct. 2026
The Air Force puts the missile’s range at approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), allowing aircraft to launch it from a considerable distance rather than flying directly over hostile territory.

— Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of flying

Verb

The Sun enters your 6th House, beginning a month focused on routines, responsibilities, health, work, and the systems that keep everything moving.

— Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 23 Oct. 2026
Position for the companies that are moving from cost cutting into building.

— Stephen Messer, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of moving

Verb

The companies that capture that value will redesign work around their most creative people, rather than bolting AI onto old processes and counting the empty chairs.

— Jay Kaplan, Fortune, 27 Oct. 2026
Jim Zellers, a pioneer of big-mountain snowboarding and a friend of Morrison’s for almost four decades, had for several years been bolting new routes on this face, refining and naming and grading.

— Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of bolting

Verb

Later, she’s entertained by a mouse running along the baseboard of one of London’s more elegant restaurants.

— Sarah Crompton, Vogue, 21 Oct. 2026
Spanning 40 miles as the crow flies, the Suwalki Gap is a corridor of land, running along the Polish/Lithuanian border, that connects the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to Belarus.

— Chas Newkey-Burden, TheWeek, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of running along

Browse Nearby Words

bugging off

bugging out

buggy

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Bugging out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bugging%20out. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of bugging out

verb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

grotesque

Popular in Grammar & Usage

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE

Popular

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes