bug chasingn.
/ˈbʌɡ tʃeɪsɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈbəɡ ˌtʃeɪsɪŋ/ colloquial and slang (originally North American).
1. North American colloquial (often humorous and depreciative). The action or practice of seeking out or investigating bugs (in various senses); spec. searching for or collecting insects and other bugs (bug n.2 1), esp. as entomological specimens; (also) the study of germs and diseases (bug n.2 6).
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the world > food and drink > hunting > hunting specific animals > [noun] > hunting or catching insects
butterfly-catching1796
butterfly-hunting1796
bee-hunting1824
mothing1826
bee-hunt1835
wasp-nesting1872
bug chasing1875
1875 Sci. Amer. 18 Sept. 177/1 Professors of the humanities..look down upon..naturalists..as eccentric fellows, chiefly employed..in bug-chasing and poking into all sorts of dirty places.
1894 Med. Advance Oct. 230 I am so tired of bug-chasing... Who knows that a bacillus is the cause of typhoid?
1928 Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio) 31 Aug. 19/3 Bug chasing is a sport played by an old man with whiskers, a net and a couple of college educations.
1976 Grand Prairie (Texas) Daily News 21 Nov. 2/7 This field of ‘bug chasing’ [sc. epidemiology] has only been actively pursued in this area for the past six years or so.
1985 A. Roland Model Res. I. xii. 288 The NACA was becoming more of a service agency.., drawn into problem-solving and bug-chasing.
2014 Lebanon (Pa.) Daily News (Nexis) 3 May My bug chasing has led me to many streams that were suffering from one source of pollution or another.
2. slang. The action or practice (esp. among homosexual men) of actively seeking infection with the HIV virus through unprotected sex with HIV-positive partners. Cf. bug chaser n. 2b.
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1999 Deviant Behavior 20 92 As the epidemic has progressed, claiming more victims, it is likely that bug chasing increased in frequency.
2003 Rolling Stone (Electronic ed.) 6 Feb. 44 Condoms and safe sex are openly ridiculed on bug-chasing Web sites, with many bug chasers rebelling against what they see as the dogma of safe-sex education.
2009 T. Dean Unlimited Intimacy i. 83 Through bug chasing.., gay cultural membership becomes irrevocable in a way that neither regional nor religious cultural membership is.
2013 Daily Mirror (Nexis) 7 July 22 Bug chasing needs to be addressed, both by the UK's NHS and the education system so that people are aware of the risks.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2017; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1875