or fault of equipment: a draft version was lost in a computer glitch. • an unexpected setback: the only glitch in his year is failing to qualify for the Masters. • Astronomy a brief irregularity in the rotation of a pulsar. ! verb [ no obj. ] chiefly US suffer a sudden malfunction or fault: the elevators glitched. ! ORIGIN 1960s (originally US): of unknown origin. The original sense was ‘a sudden surge of current’, hence ‘malfunction, hitch’ in astronautical slang. Oxford Dictionary of English