Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Ulster) one who is always ‘on the make’.

1997

Share Slanguage.

2. (Aus./N.Z./US, also scungeel) an unpleasant, objectionable person.

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/4: scunge: [...] persons who do not make frequent use of the bathtub.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 127: We’re not gonna lose a man like Guido for a fuckin’ scungeel of a spic.
1985		Canberra Times (ACT) 17 Nov. 42/1: Blokes, guys (boys); sheilas, birds (girls); flipped (in love); going steady, going around (going out with); neat (good); drong, twit, scunge, gross (awful boring person).
1994		Tharunka (Kensington, NSW) 13 Sept. 26/4: People who were once fine and decent human beings degenerate into that lowest form of scunge who’d chop up their own grandmothers if it would guarantee them getting elected.

3. (Aus./N.Z.) dirt, filth, often associated with the body.

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/4: scunge: Garbage, rubbish.
1969		Aus. Women’s Wkly 23 July 52/2: Scunge of one sort and another can be hidden behind a closed laundry door.
1987		Tharunka (Kensington, NSW) 16 Mar. 34/2: Our first dose of scunge comes when our heroine discovers insect hairs growing out of one of Brundle’s infected wounds.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 97/2: scunge [...] filth.
1995		Canberra Times (ACT) 7 Oct. 53/4: This novel [...] is being described as scunge writing or dirty realism.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].