be (as) snug as a bug in a rug

To be warm and cozy, typically while wrapped in blankets. My daughters are all snug as a bug in a rug watching a movie together. I hate the cold weather, so I look forward to bedtime—when I can be as snug as a bug in a rug. After a long week, I can't wait to just be snug as a bug in a rug catching up on my favorite shows.

See also: bug, rug, snug

snug as a bug (in a rug)

Very warm and cozy, typically while wrapped in blankets. My daughters are all snug as a bug in a rug watching a movie together. I hate the cold weather, so I look forward being snug as a bug in bed.

snug down

1. To secure the equipment, gear, or parts of a ship or other seafaring vessel that could be damaged or blown away in preparation for an oncoming storm. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "snug" and "down." We scrambled to snug down the sailboat as the wind and rain began to intensify. I found myself wishing I had my wife with my to snug the yacht down at the end of the day.

2. To settle into a very warm, comfortable, cozy position. When I was in my twenties, I loved to go out to parties on Friday nights, but now I'm happy to just snug down in front of the TV with a good movie.

*snug as a bug in a rug

Cliché wrapped up tight, warm, and comfortable. (Playful; often used when addressing a child. *Also: as ~.) The bedroom in Aunt Jane's house was cold, but after she wrapped me up in four or five quilts and put a stocking cap on my head, I was snug as a bug in a rug and ready to go to sleep. Alan: Are you warm enough? Jane: Yes, I'm as snug as a bug in a rug.

See also: bug, rug, snug

snug down (some place)

to become comfortable and warm in a place. The cat snugged down at the foot of the bed. Finally the children snugged down and we could go to sleep.

snug as a bug in a rug

Very cozy and comfortable, as in During the blizzard we had plenty of firewood and stayed in the cottage, snug as a bug in a rug . This expression, thought to allude to a moth larva happily feeding inside a rolled-up carpet, was first recorded in 1769 and probably owes its long life to the rhyme.

See also: bug, rug, snug

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

snug as a bug in a rug

BRITISH, OLD-FASHIONED

If someone is as snug as a bug in a rug, they are very warm and comfortable, usually in a bed. Kitty was curled up in bed, as snug as a bug in a rug.

See also: bug, rug, snug

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

snug as a bug (in a rug)

extremely comfortable. humorous

(as) snug as a bug (in a rug)

(informal, humorous) very warm and comfortable: In his sleeping bag he’ll be as snug as a bug in a rug.

snug down

To prepare some vessel to weather a storm, as by taking in sail or securing movable gear: The sailors snugged down the ship. Let's snug the boat down before the storm comes.

snug as a bug in a rug

Singularly comfortable; well entrenched. The expression, which alludes, presumably, to the clothes-moth larva happily feeding inside a rolled-up carpet, dates from 1769 (Stratford Jubilee, unknown author) and, probably owing to its rhyme, has remained current. Benjamin Franklin used it in a letter to Miss Georgiana Shipley (1772): “Here Skugg lies snug As a bug in a rug.”

See also: bug, rug, snug

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