Definition of "bot" []

• The parasitic larva of a botfly. (noun)
• A disease of mammals, especially cattle and horses, caused by infestation of the stomach or intestines with botfly larvae. (noun)
• A software program that imitates the behavior of a human, as by querying search engines or participating in chatroom or IRC discussions. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "We thought this sounded a little scarier than it really is, and that a little more detail might help. bot is short for robot."
• "Howlin 'Mary -- that's what we called the bot --- on the wind, and the other bot did the same, both of us makin' for the same spot."
• "The search bot is a web page which only requires refreshing the page to (re) search. typologies of intellectual property -- An interactive visualization of intellectual property."