buzz

n 1: sound of rapid vibration: "the buzz of a bee"

2: a confusion of activity and gossip; "the buzz of excitement

was so great that a formal denial was issued"

v 1: make a buzzing sound [syn: {bombinate}, {bombilate}]

2: fly low; "Planes buzzed the crowds in the square"

3: be noisy with activity; "This office is buzzing with

activity" [syn: {hum}, {seethe}]

4: call with a buzzer; "he buzzed the servant"

buzz

1. Of a program, to run with no indication of progress and

perhaps without guarantee of ever finishing; especially said

of programs thought to be executing a {tight loop} of code. A

program that is buzzing appears to be {catatonic}, but never

gets out of catatonia, while a buzzing loop may eventually end

of its own accord. "The program buzzes for about 10 seconds

trying to sort all the names into order." See {spin}; see

also {grovel}.

2. [ETA Systems] To test a wire or printed circuit trace for

continuity by applying an AC rather than DC signal. Some wire

faults will pass DC tests but fail a buzz test.

3. To process an {array} or list in sequence, doing the same

thing to each element. "This loop buzzes through the tz array

looking for a terminator type."

[{Jargon File}]