Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Aus.) a sausage [? its propensity to explode if cooked without initial pricking of the skin].

1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Argonauts’ in Naval Occasions 37: Tinned sausages (‘Bangers’) and bacon, jam, sardines and bananas, cocoa, beer, and sloe-gin: the Argonauts guzzled shamelessly.
1917		R. Hamley diary in Phillips, Boyack & Malone Great Adventure (1988) 14 July 123: Left camp this morning after a breakfast of bangers.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: banger. Sausage.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 80: For sausages we can offer a selction of terms—snags, snaggles, snorks, snorkers and bangers.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 183: Sausages are ‘bangers’.
1960		(con. c.1928) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 160: Tell the cook to ruddy well fry some bangers and eggs and bacon.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene x: Double egg, bacon, ’am, bangers.
1973		B.S. Johnson All Bull 29: The cooks [...] doled out tinned toms and greasy bangers.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 141: One of the them produced a kilo of pork sausages [...] ‘I can’t abide burst bangers’.
1982		Beano 20 Nov. 13: My bangers and mash!
1999		Indep. Rev. 27 July 8: The sausages he makes himself – bangers that you won’t find anywhere else.
2000		Observer Mag. 12 Mar. 10: She [...] eats bangers and mash afterwards.
2003		(con. 1932) W. Woodruff Beyond Nab End 4: A group of night-riders shovelling bangers and onions with HP sauce.
2012		A. Savage ‘Killing Peacocks’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Trevor was dishing out the bangers.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 69: ‘How about bangers and mash?’.

2. a dilapidated motorcar [the sound of an ill-tuned, ageing engine].

1952		E. Kent Gaz. 31 Oct. 2: [advert] What Do Friday's Do With The Real Old ‘Bangers’ Taken In Part Exchange? Sell Them at Knock-Out Prices to Someone Who Deals in That Class of Vehicle.
1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 119: Dick explained the motor car business to Jeanie. ‘You can start with a lot of old bangers and make twenty or thirty quid on each one.’.
1967		Sun. Times 5 Feb. 17: A system that allows him to pass his test one day in a 10-year-old ‘banger’ and climb straight into a 150 mph Jaguar the next [etc.].
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 69: Would you drive a clapped-out banger through a bloody church?
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 94: Making rude and gamey gestures from fast cars at thick-brained yobs from Romford [...] in slow and worn-out bangers.
1989		M. Walker How to Kiss a Crocodile 82: Nevertheless we found ourselves, uncomfortably sitting in the back seat of this old banger, not knowing where we were being taken.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] I’m driving a two hundred dollar banger.
1997		P. Theroux Kowloon Tong 79: Luz was from Manila, a city of bangers and jitneys.
2002		Fabian & Byrne Out of Time (ms.) 74: He eventually remembered to pick me up in his banger from the train station.
2011		Observer 20 Feb. 31/2: Old people treated like old bangers: rust-boxes full of dodgy components.

3. (Irish) an audible breaking of wind.

1991

B. Quinn Smokey Hollow 45: Sniff. – Who let the banger? – Not me.

4. in fig. use, anything or anyone worn out and run down.

1998

I. Welsh Filth 145: I was reading in the Sunday paper about some old cunt who [...] traded in his old banger for some premium fresh minge.

5. a cylinder; usu. in combs. four-banger, six banger.

2006

G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 98: Rhonda Willis, riding shotgun in the [...] four-banger Impala.