Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bunged) of the eyes, blackened.

1820		‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘The Fields of Tothill’ in Fancy 73: And eyes are things that may be bung’d, or blacken’d.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 56: And last, far-famed for fisty prize, / Moll Chauntress view, with bung’d up eyes.
1837		R.P. Robinson Life and Conversations 11: The damsels are remarkably plump—with shining faces, and often bunged up as to one eye.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 15 July 2/3: [He] napped pepper on his bunged-up ocular.
1856		M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 56: He struck Jake a lick dat kum mighty nigh puttin’ out his eye. It’s all bunged up now.
1856		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 25 Oct. n.p.: Four [prostitutes] in the house with ‘bunged eyes;’ two with ‘broken noses’.
1901		F.J. Gillen Diary (1968) 5: These infernal flies after repeated attempts succeed in bunging one of my eyes. The first bunged eye I have ever had.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 227: He had his jaw in a sling, so that I wondered if I had broken it, and his eyes were beautifully bunged up.
1936		Wodehouse ‘Trouble Down at Tudsleigh’ in Young Men in Spats 71: ‘If you got both eyes bunged up, you wouldn’t be able to see the scenery.’ ‘Why should I get both eyes bunged up?’ ‘You might’.

2. physically beaten, hurt.

c.1865		‘Artemus Ward’ ‘He Found He Would’ 🌐 He was brought home in a bunged-up condition [...] One eye was gouged out, a portion of his nose was chawed off, his left arm was in a sling, his head was done up in an old rag, and he was pretty badly off himself.
1890		Hull Dly Mail 12 Sept. 3/4: A man [...] had both eyes balcked and his nose badly bunged up.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 102: The Bunged-Up feet resting in Carpet Slippers.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 438: bunged up, adj. Bruised or sore; worn out; full of aches. ‘I ache all over, and feel so bunged up I must go to bed.’.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 24: How in the world do you fight with your hands bunged up like this?
1918		E. Hemingway letter 21 July in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 12: I suppose Brummy has written you all about my getting bunged up.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Knight’s Return’ in Chisholm (1951) 85: But ’ere’s me lip swole up an’ one eye black / An’ all me map in gen’ril bunged an’ bust.
1930		R.E. Howard ‘Fist and Fang’ Fight Stories May 🌐 Don’t think you rate so high, just because you’re a little bunged up.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 88: He’s bunged up pretty bad.
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 66: ‘I hear Mr. Weiman’s in the hospital. I wonder if you could tell me how he is.’ ‘Pretty bunged up, I guess.’.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 38: They’ve never been the same since I got them bunged up.
1987		S. King Misery (1988) 57: Do you remember seeing anyone on the road the day of the storm? [...] Might have looked sort of bunged up?
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 209: How he’d managed to fall thirty or thirty-five feet and only get bunged up bad instead of bein killed outright.
2003		T. Wolff Old School 189: Arch had taken up riding only after his leg got bunged up.

3. stuffy, blocked, esp. of one’s nose during ’flu or a cold, or of constipation.

[1599		Nashe Praise of the Red Herring 32: The waies beyond sea were so bungd vp with your dayly oratours [...] that a snaile coulde not wriggle in her hornes betwixt them].
1791		H. Lemoine ‘Education’ in Attic Misc. 116: As Nell sat on Newgate steps, and scratch’d her poll, / Her eyes suffus’d with tears, and bung'd with gin.
1833		‘Dick Hellfinch’ in Rummy Cove’s Delight in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 105: As Nell sat on Newgate steps, and scratch’d her pole, / Her eyes suffus’d with tears, and bung’d with gin.
1899		Kipling ‘A Little Prep’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 195: Suppose a chap found another chap croaking with diphtheria — all bunged up with it — and they stuck a tube in his throat and the chap sucked the stuff out, what would you say?
1899		J.W. Davis Gawktown Revival Club 18: ‘Call my voice bunged up?’ he croaked [...] ‘Yours is teetotally out of whack’.
1909		Carr & Chase in ‘Word-List From Aroostook’ in DN III:v 409: bunged up, adj. Ill; out of health.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 578: The sailor stared at him heavily from a pair of drowsy baggy eyes, rather bunged up from excessive use of boose.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 185: One crumby pub was bunged up to the gills.
1979		A. Campbell Island To Island (1984) 20: His bowels were all bunged up.
1997		T. Winton Lockie Leonard, Legend (1998) 84: The kind of food that Nan and Pop could eat without getting bunged up.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 62: That noseblow I heard before [...] Its that same bunged-up grocer I just know it with the same bunged-up snout.

4. (US) second-rate; broken down.

1907

C. M’Govern By Bolo and Krag 18: A bunged-up old Spanish wash-tub with a couple of young telegraph poles for masts.

5. (Aus.) in a bad way, hopeless.

1938

N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 190: When things are absolutely bunged up, something unexpected turns up to put them right.

6. squashed, creased, pushed together uncomfortably.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U. 49: Jane’s slip was all bunged up under her dress.