1.
[syn: bug, glitch]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
glitch \glitch\ n.
1. A fault or defect in a system, plan, or machine.
Syn: bug.
[WordNet 1.5]
2. (Elect.) A brief surge or interruption in the voltage in
an electrical circuit or device.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
glitch
n 1: a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine
[syn: bug, glitch]
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
glitch
/glich/
[very common; from German ?glitschig? slippery, via Yiddish ?glitshen?, to
slide or skid]
1. n. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or
program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in electric
service is specifically called a power glitch (also power hit), of grave
concern because it usually crashes all the computers. In jargon, though, a
hacker who got to the middle of a sentence and then forgot how he or she
intended to complete it might say, ?Sorry, I just glitched?.
2. vi. To commit a glitch. See gritch.
3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, esp. several lines at a time.
WAITS terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous scrolling,
which is distracting to the eye.
4. obs. Same as magic cookie, sense 2.
All these uses of glitch derive from the specific technical meaning the
term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is now techspeak. A
glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit change, and the outputs
change to some random value for some very brief time before they settle
down to the correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just
the wrong time, reading the random value, the results can be very wrong and
very hard to debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbug
s).
[73-06-04]
Coping with a hydraulic glitch.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
glitch
/glich/ [German "glitschen" to slip, via Yiddish "glitshen",
to slide or skid] 1. (Electronics) When the inputs of a
circuit change, and the outputs change to some random value
for some very brief time before they settle down to the
correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just
the wrong time, reading the random value, the results can be
very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one of many
causes of electronic heisenbugs).
2. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity,
continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An
interruption in electric service is specifically called a
"power glitch" (or power hit), of grave concern because it
usually crashes all the computers. See also gritch.
2. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, especially several
lines at a time. WAITS terminals used to do this in order
to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the
eye.
4. Obsolete. Same as magic cookie.
[Jargon File]