Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a general intensifer, a modified version of fucking adj. (1)

1943		Aistrop & Moore Bugle Blast II 76: Busty yelled, asked him if he thought his bloody hut looked like a post-office, or if he, Busty, looked like a bastarding postman.
1954		B. Kiely Honey Seems Bitter 161: You bastardin’ liar. I’ll kill you for that.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 40: Why did I keep those bastarding Capstans?
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 27: ‘Bastardin’ robbers,’ he snorted.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 83: I will [...] if I can find the bloody bastarding bottle!
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 77: Another bastarding night march tonight.
1996		(con. 1970) G. Moxley Danti-Dan in McGuinness Dazzling Dark (1996) II i: I’m not having some bastering Yank telling me what to do.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 30: If Carole hadn’t made us fuck off to go to Australia for six bastarding years.
2000		Indep. Rev. 3 May 11: I thought we’d be better off under Labour but fuck it’s bastardin’ worse.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 113: The go-getter generation is being hounded by [...] the bastarding police.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: There won’t be a next time for the stupid wee cunt. Bastarding sure there won’t!

a general term of abuse.

1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 11: It’s a good life [...] if you don’t give in to coppers and Borstal-bosses and the rest of them bastard-faced In-laws.
2007		‘Apocalypse D’ Brace for Impact 122: The dog’s a bastard faced bastard, but Ernie and his wife aren't too bad.

a general intensifier, completely, extremely, very much.

1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 55: Cunt shouldn’t bastard-well drink if he can’t carry it.
1941		P. Larkin letter 16 Sept. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 21: A bastard who can bastard well write bastard shit like that bastard well ought to be bastard well stuffed with broken glass, the bastard.
1951		R. Leveridge Walk on the Water 11: It’s a bastard day; I’m bastard well fed-up, and if I weren’t a bastard I don’t know how the bastard hell I could bastard well take it.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 280: Who says I can’t? I’ll bastardwell show the bastard what I can do! He’ll bastardwell see for himself!

a general intensifier, usu. with adj.

1977		J. Langone Life at the Bottom 33: The temperature where he lives is always around 80 degrees and it’s rainy as a bastard.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 121: Ah’m in no bleedin time at all stoned as a fuckin bastard. [Ibid.] 135: Ah’m fucked. Drunk an stoned as a cunt.
2003		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 1: as a beast – to a great degree: It’s cold as a beast today.

an obsessive.

2024

S. Leith Haunted Wood 183: The Flopsy Bunnies - to say nothing of their notorious Uncle Peter - are bastards for lettuce.

(Aus.) to commit oneself unrestrainedly.

1999

G. Seal Lingo 194: going at it hammer and tongs is to attack a task enthusiastically. going fit to bust, going like a bastard, going gangbusters and going like billyo have much the same meaning.

(orig. Aus.) a phr. for anything considered unpleasant, excessively challenging etc.

1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats ix: The infantry will win the war in the end despite all their tanks and fancy planes; but it’s a bastard.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 116: It’s a bastard, though, having to go back to the Army every year.

(orig. US) a general intensifier; often with lie or work.

1929		(con. WW1) Hall & Niles One Man’s War 161: I only had time to give him two short bursts. After that he turned over on his back, then slipped over on his nose and spun like a bastard for more than 10,000 feet.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 116: I started wondering like a bastard what the one sitting next to me, that taught English, thought about, being a nun and all, when she read certain books.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 141: He and Dusty laughed like bastards, and she shrugged.
1962		H.S. Thompson letter 26 May in Proud Highway (1997) 338: I have been swilling beer like a bastard.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 5: Hurts like a bastard. [Ibid.] 15: I was thinking more [...] of you having the prosecutor tell the judge how I’ve been helping my uncle like a bastard.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 15: I worked like a bastard.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 2: If he gave Tommy any bullshit he would get a flick behind the ear that would sting like a bastard.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 302: I was coughing like a bastard.
1999		Guardian Guide 12–18 June 30: Pissin’ it down ‘like a bastard’ as some cockney sparra’ in the queue said.
1999		T. Dorsey Florida Roadkill 96: He screamed and ran naked like a bastard through the house.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 5: I’m grinnin like a bastard too with the sheer buzz of bein hunted.
2004		T. Winton ‘Abbreviation’ Turning (2005) 29: ‘Hurt?’ ‘Like a total bastard,’ she said.

a man, often used as a term of affectionate address.

1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 832: I’m just a poor old bastard.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 168: ‘G’day, ya old bastard,’ said Jim, and I was amused again at the thought that the Tommies could never get used to our main term of endearment.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 82: You old bastard! Where did you spring—.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 10: Real old bastard, he is. Good bloke, though.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 35: Edgar, you old bastard, why aren’t you home pruning the rosebuds?
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 7: Bastard: [...] a term of affection as in ‘good old bastard.’.
1999		R. Lemm Milton Acorn 74: We tell each other about our wives His dead, mine lost, his lost before her death: And I say, ‘Bull, you old bastard!’ And he says, ‘Milt, you old bastard!’.
2000		R. Robertson Heroes 132: Poor old bastard, Bayle thought. How can he write a game report without any quotes from the players? Poor old bastard.
2012		S.A. Garcia Cupid Knows Best 93: First off, the old bastard is hale and hearty.