Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und., also bong) a purse.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 83: bunge, a pursse.
1592		Greene Blacke Bookes Messenger 2: When he had nipt a Bung or cut a good purse, he would steale ouer in to the Low Countrie.
1597		E.S. Discovery of Knights of Poste D: The brinext bung the Cutpurse nyppes, shall serue for his recompence.
1607		Dekker Iests to make you merie 39: If they [i.e. a cutpurse team] follow you in the stréet, and once know where the bung and the bit is, as much as to say, your purse and the money, out goes your stall before likewise [...] when the other as néere behinde you [...] withall drawes your purse.
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 42: My bong, my lowre, & fambling cheates / Shall be at thy command.
1613		Beaumont & Fletcher Coxcomb II ii: Sheathe your bung, whore!
1620		‘Song of the Beggar’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 14: Ten miles vnto a Market. / I runne to meet a Miser, / Then in a throng, I nip his Bung, / And the partie ne’er the wiser.
1630		Tinker of Turvey Epistle 1: Arm’d with his budget, Bung-Dagger, New-panne and hammer.
1639		J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 189: Cove. Mort, what lower hast thou in thy Bung?
c.1658		J. Cleveland Cleivelandi Vindiciae (1677) 99: He is in the Inquisition of the Purse an Aunthentick Gypsie, that nips your bung with a canting Ordinance [F&H].
1665		Head Eng. Rogue 40: One of our diving Comrades pickt their pockets, or with a short sharp knife, and a horn on the thumb nipt their bungs.
1671		‘L.B.’ New Academy of Complements 213: Then in the throng, / I nip his Bung.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Boung, a Purse.
1688		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit (1707) 194: Fib the Covet quarrons in the Rum pad, for the Lour in his Bung. [Beat the Man on the High-way, for the Money in his Purse].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Claying the Bung, Cutting the Purse, or Picking the Pocket.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 205: Fib, to beat. Fib the cove’s quarrons in the rum-pad, for the lowr in his bung. Beat the man in the highway lustily, for the money in his purse.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 105: The first Question they asked him was, If he had any Loure in his Bung.
1740		Poor Robin n.p.: Meanwhile the cut-purse in the throng, / Hath a fair means to nyp a bung [F&H].
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account 18 Mar. 🌐 They examined the Contents of their Booties, which was three Bungs, with Lowers (Purses) .
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 18: A Purse – Bung.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Boung, (cant) a purse.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1833		‘The Slap-Up Cracksman’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 43: So flick the suck — or draw the clicks, / The lil, the jam, or bung from kicks.
1859		‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Matsell Vocabulum 124: The chips, the fawneys, chatty-feeders, / The bugs, the boungs, and well-filled readers.

2. a pocket.

1592		Greene Quip for an Upstart Courtier B2: By his side, a skein [dagger] like a brewer’s boung-knife.
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 37: Bung is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse.
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account of the Malefactors executed at Tyburn 18th March 1740 part II 7: They took Opportunity to [...] Chive the Froes of their Bungs, (or cut off the Women’s Pockets).
1764		Bloody Register III 171: [as cit. 1741].
1830		B.M. Carew Gypsey of the Glen I iii: Be charitable, and put your fangs into your bungs, and throw us a croaker – All of us poor cripples.

3. a cut-purse.

c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 2 II iv: Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away!
1658		R. Brathwait Age for Apes 259: I [...] in acquaintance with some Gipsies fell; Whose chiefest Bung and Captain now I am.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 120: bung. A low-lived term of reproach for a sharper or pickpocket.

4. a bribe.

1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 149: ‘Alright so how much is the bung?’ asked Solie.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 192: His proposed bung had no bearing on Sneed seeing them [i.e. rules] enforced.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 176: Bung, a A gratuity of an almost legitimate nature, not quite a bribe.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1999		Observer 12 Dec. 15: The jury had already heard Fayed’s allegations of bungs in brown envelopes.
2001		Indep. 14 Aug. 5: Railtrack manager took ‘bungs’ to fix lucrative deals for his friends, court told.
2006		Sun (London) 26 July [headline] Laurence Cop ‘Took Bung’.
2012		Independent 24 Jan. 5/5: These payments were a bung or offshore bonus that the parties had absolutely no intention of paying taxes for.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 66: ‘Things people will do for a cash bung’.

5. a loan.

1993

I. Welsh Trainspotting 99: Ye’ll need tae gie us a bung though, Gav. Ah’m fuckin brassic.