bot1
/bɒt
/noun
1The larva of the botfly, which is an internal parasite of horses.Traditionally, the most effective treatments for the control of horse bots have been applied at least 30 days after the first killing frost....
- One exception is to be certain the horse is dewormed for bots each fall and spring.
- If not removed, the eggs are eventually ingested as the horse nuzzles its legs and can cause problems, even death, if the horse isn't given a wormer that kills bots.
1.1 (sheep bot) The sheep nostril fly. See nostril fly.The immature stage of the sheep bot fly is an internal parasite in the nasal cavities of the head of sheep....
- The common sheep bot fly breeds in the nasal cavity and sinuses of sheep.
- The sheep bot fly produces live young and deposits them in the nostrils of sheep.
2Australian /NZ informal A person who persistently borrows or cadges from others.
Origin
Early 16th century: probably of Low German origin.
Rhymes
bot2
/bɒt/noun
1(Chiefly in science fiction) a robot: we have maintenance bots in there...
- We've got a big expo coming up, and if you'd like to show off your bots, the Summer Robot Games & Expo in San Francisco is a great opportunity to do so.
- He left the room, leaving the smoldering training robot for the cleaner bot to pick up.
- There were also several trucks, and some bots that looked like automated forklifts.
1.1 Computing An autonomous program on a network (especially the Internet) which can interact with systems or users, especially one designed to behave like a player in some computer games: [in combination]: a mailbot...
- In co-op play, online players team up against bots to accomplish missions.
- The search engine bots would certainly have downloaded that meta-data and may have it stored in databases ready for somebody to just ask nicely.
- Where that information comes from is unclear; the report's authors believe some of the bots are interfacing in real time with credit card company databases.
Origin
1960s: shortening of robot.