bung v.1
1. to hit, to punch, esp. in the eye.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 6 July 2/3–4: And there a ghastly throng of battered heads, bunged eyes, broken jaws, and demolished noses, ‘frowned in melancholy perspective,’ pleading like dumb mouths for vengeance. | |
| N.Y. American 11 July 2/3: I struck him, and we had five or six rounds in the street [...] Soon after, he came up to me in his shirt sleeves, and we had three or four rounds more, when I bung’d him, and they took me away to the police office. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Morn. Chron. (London) 21 Apr. 4/3: Ingliss’s face shewed the powerful effects of the punishment [...] his left eye being nearly bunged. | |
| Charcoal Sketches (1865) 42: A blow given there [...] neither ‘bungs a peeper’ nor ‘taps a smeller’. | |
| Clockmaker (1843) III 49: I hitty once wid all ma might, I bungy eye and spile his sight. | |
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 16 June 5/3: What a lot of lubbarly fellars kan see in. knockin trumpry pinkushons off sticks, I karnt imagine without its for ther chance of [...] bungin sum poor crittur’s eye. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 Feb. 4/1: A man gets ‘his claret tapped’ and ‘his peepers bunged’ and ‘naps it on the conk’. | |
| Liverpool Dly Post 31 Aug. 9/5: They ‘bunged his eye up, his nose was cracked, and he had to send for a doctor’. | |
| ‘’Arry to the Front!’ in Punch 9 Mar. 100/2: A spouter turns off at the mains when his tater-trap’s bunged with a brick. | |
| Weir Jrnl (Weir, KS) 5 Apr. 3/3: Her eye was that badly ‘bunged’ it would take may be three weeks before it would come right. | |
| Letters from Cambridge 47: We fought and chucked the bread and butter at one another. I bunged his eye up with the pat of butter [...] and turned him out. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 18 Mar. 2/5: And he bunged his eyes, / Though much less in size. | |
| Blazed Trail 125: The whole Fighting Forty shrieked out the chorus: ‘Bung yer eye! Bung yer eye!’. | |
| [perf. Vesta Victoria] Mary Queen of Scots 🎵 She bunged my eye with an orange that burst. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 6 Jan. 8/4: If one German Kops him he avers he will Bung him one. | |
| ‘Ballad of the Long Dam’ Songs of the Dead End 95: Carroty Dan had some teeth bunged out. | |
| ‘’Ave a ’Eart!’ in Rose of Spadgers 73: Yeh’ve bunged ’is eye ’an bashed in ’arf ’is teeth. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman 104: ‘Live,’ said Thomas. ‘Bung it then.’. |
2. to lie, to deceive.
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. | |
| Americanisms 587: Bung-town, an imaginary town in New England, so called from the slang term to bung, meaning to lie. Hence, Bung-town Copper is a favorite name of the spurious English half-penny, which has no currency in the country [...] It is said that such a coin was really once made — a counterfeit, of course — in a town then bearing the name of Bung-town, but since known as Rehoboth, in Massachusetts. | |
| Sl. Dict. |
3. to pass, to throw, usu. energetically or aggressively.
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 14: bung, to give, pass over, drink, or indeed to perform any action. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859]. |
| Pink ’Un and Pelican 198: Each of the three bunged him back five half-crowns. | |
| Marvel 23 June 614: He bunged the bat at me! | |
| Cockney At Home 165: Bai Jove! I’ll bung you over the price o’ a wet. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/2: Bung him a cheery greeting and a fag, and you’re setski. | |
| (con. 1910) Crooks of the Und. 223: I bunged Bill a new tool and hopped it. | |
| Right Ho, Jeeves 255: I, having bunged the bicycle into a bush, made for the stairs. | |
| ‘The Fortress Song’ in Airman’s Song Book (1945) 137: A little rubber hose-pipe / To bung the gravy through. | |
| Jennings Goes To School 100: Bung it all back again, quick. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 127: I didn’t want to bung a spanner into her mood of bien être. | |
| Holy Smoke 80: Thou shalt bung this line of scarlet thread up in the window there when you see our mob coming. | |
| East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 47: OK I’ll bung thee a snout, Les. | |
| London Fields 80: Half the time you just bung them in their – in that pen thing. | |
| Indep. Mag. 6 Aug. 40: You don’t have to see those people with their guts all over everything or burnt up or with their heads bung off. | |
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 205: ‘Who gives a purple blurt where Choko’s new hat was. I know where I’d like to bung it’. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. | |
| Financial Times Mag. 6 July 13/2: Cameron has come up with a new plan to bung some bunce at those joined in holy matrimony. |
4. to hand over, to give quickly; esp. in imper. e.g. bung this round to Fred.
 | see sense 3. | |
| Sporting Times 26 Apr. 1/4: I ain’t like you, a-snoochin’ about the bally course, having to bung yer stake-money into the bookie’s tin saucepan through the bloomin’ rails. | |
| Derby Mercury 9 Jan. 8/3: Big Tim says, 'you are very peas in the pot (rhyming slang for 'hot', otherwise impudent) the Mug bunged you a bit more than that'. | |
| ‘A Dangerous Dad’ Sporting Times 3 Feb. 1/4: Shall I bung in the sarsaparilla? / Yes, I thought that a gallon or so of old six / Would about shut the old fellow’s blinkers. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Jan. 1/1: As the unclean Chow had bunged in his half-jim he refused to flit. | |
| Cockney At Home 52: I bungs him half a dollar to pay. | |
| (con. 1916) Her Privates We (1986) 235: You just bung it in at th’ orderly-room, an’ we’ll do what’s possible. | |
| (con. 1900s) Sporting Times 250: In the ordinary way there’d be nothing for it but to bung him along his cheque. | |
| Mating Season 10: Well, bung him in. | |
| Guntz 15: They used to bung me a tip for bringing me their groceries. | |
| East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 62: We always bunged them whatever size we had in stock. | |
| ‘Strained Relations’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Bung the vicar a couple of quid. | |
| Powder 487: Bung it through anyway, and I promise I’ll get to it. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 206: I’ve been bunging Fianna Fáil money for years. |
5. to steal.
| Sheffield Dly Teleg. 9 Nov. 3/2: To his ‘firm pal,’ Jack, he bequeaths his favourite jemmy; to his ‘Rotty [sic] Cully,’ Bill, his ‘ticker,’ which he ‘bunged from the old cove on Denmark-hill; and to his ‘Leary Bloke,’ Bob, his unexpired ticket-of-leave. |
6. to hand out money, esp. to bet or to bribe.
| Sporting Times 22 Feb. 3/1: He bunged in his sovereign and walked away. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 June 7/2: $5000 was bung up for it [i.e. a prizefight purse] . | |
| ‘When They Sigh’ Sporting Times 15 Feb. 1/4: You weren’t foaled in Ormonde’s year, on that a quid I’ll bung. | |
| Sporting Times 8 Jan. 10/1: Joe is a backer of horses who pinches oof from his kid’s money-box to bung on a ‘cert’. | |
| This Gutter Life 175: The other day she took – and bunged the lot on a gee-gee! | |
| Boss of Britain’s Underworld 46: I bunged them with a few nicker. | |
| Und. Nights 193: Peter bunged Browny a monkey. | |
| Burglar to the Nobility 175: It takes all the pride out of earning honest money when you have to go bunging to theLaw. | |
| Guntz 177: A compulsion to keep on [...] bunging all and sundry. | |
| Alfie Darling 133: I left all the bunging to Bakey. Well, you don’t want two of you handing out tips. | |
| Muvver Tongue 21: When bribery in high paces is in the news, Cockneys agree that it encompasses lots of politicians and business men: ‘They all get bunged, don’t they?’. | |
| Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 276: Most of the people you’ll need to bung down here won’t take your Barclaycard. | |
| Raiders 17: He always bungs Whizzy a nice few quid. |
7. to place (inside).
| ‘Experimental’ Sporting Times 10 Feb. 1/4: She concocted some weird problematical pies / With materials many and strange; / And when Rosie had bunged all the motley array / ’Neath a crust more than a little open to doubt. | |
| Sporting Times 4 Mar. 1/5: They’ve been an’ bunged the only woman as ever acted sensibly in the Chamber of ’Orrors. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Aug. 17/1: The pea who happened to be president [...] acted as a true patriot, an bunged the whole show into the fortress. | |
| (con. 1920s) Hell’s Kitchen 243: We were taken back to Edinburgh and bunged into Carlton Gaol. | |
| Battlers 151: He’ll fix young Tolly—bung him back on the station likely as not. | |
| Jennings’ Diary 227: Seems a bit of a waste just to bung them in a box. | |
| I’m a Jack, All Right 50: Bung it up on the slate, will you. | |
| Traveller’s Tool 14: He’s bunging a new jacuzzi in his beach house. | |
| Soho 131: He’d remember all this, bung it in an essay sometime. |
8. (also bung out) to get rid of, dispose of.
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Feb. 1/1: [headline] [of race horses] Brother Bunged out By Bacchus. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 2 July 1/3: Five pubs have been bunged out in Maltland in accordance with the local option vote taken three years ago. | |
| (con. 1941) Twenty Thousand Thieves 90: I offered him a couple of stripes and he told me to bung them. | |
| Jennings’ Diary 226: I shall probably bung it all in the dust-bin. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 8: You should have bunged him out. | |
| Much Obliged, Jeeves 6: A natural disinclination to get bunged out of a well-loved club. | |
| Traveller’s Tool 8: With my strict Mick upbringing I’ve always drawn the line at bunging a bird on Diner’s. |
9. to give, as speech.
| Limehouse Nights 144: Don’t try and slip out and bung him the word. | |
| Age Of Consent 232: With a cop on my taiI was a bit upset when I got to Miss Marley’s, and I bunged the truth straight to her. | |
| Rooted IIi i: You’ve got your head screwed on the right way. You don’t bung on the bull like a lot of these blokes you see around the place. | |
| Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 168: Or is ’e bungin’ us a load of old moody again? |
10. (UK Und./police) to bribe or to pay protection money.
| Fings I i: I’ve got ter bung the law their wack tonight an’ all. | |
| in Police and the Public in Norman’s London (1969) 123: So long as he bunged them [i.e. the police] they let him stay open. | |
| Sir, You Bastard 229: James has been pulled for bunging. | |
| Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 26: ‘Bunging’ a shop assistant a couple of pounds to let you swop a cheap radio for a very expensive one. | |
| Fixx 99: Shift-the-sitting-tenant-bung-the-local-councillor-a-monkey-and clean-up-lark. | |
| Curvy Lovebox 96: Nood playin’ flashcash son-in-law ready to bung the whole fuckin’ vanload [i.e. of police] a fiver. |
In phrases
to gamble at a casino.
| Sporting Times 15 Feb. 1/2: ‘If you mean, madam,’ snarled Shifter, who, with the others, had just been bunging it in, ‘that we haven’t got a sovereign among us, you’re about right.’ [Ibid.] 3/3: [We] were able to gaze in comfort down on to the Place at Monte Carlo, with its just discernible black dots, which we knew to be folks on their way to bung it in at the tables. [Ibid.] 8 Mar. 2/1: [We] had been bunging it in on our own particular pet system, warranted to make its followers gradually and gracefully stone pebble-beached broke. |
1. to act affectedly, to strike poses, to assume an accent.
| Aus. Women’s Wkly 28 Nov. 14/4: [of a bugler] He marches out, snaps to attention, and let’s it go. It’s a treat for sore eyes to see him ‘bung it on’. | |
| They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 156: Good English, used in conversation, appears stilted and insincere. My Australian friends say that a man who uses it is not fair dinkum. They say he ‘is bungin’ ut on’. | |
| One Day of the Year I i: Well, she bungs it on a bit, don’t she? [...] I’m telling you, that young lady‘s too laa-dee-dah for us. | |
| Old Familiar Juice (1973) 102: dadda: Yer needn’t bung on. stanley: Bung on what? | |
| Dinkum Aussie Dict. 12: Bunging it on: [...] More or less to act out of one’s own class in the upwardly mobile sense. For instance, if one’s host, who is normally given to providing his guests with fourpenny dark out of Vegemite glasses, suddenly offers a proper champagne out of equally proper glasses he is said to be bunging it on. | |
| How to Shoot Friends 123: She is a former model and knows how to bung it on for the camera. |
2. (also bung on) to exert pressure.
| Teleg. (Brisbane) 17 June 6/3: The Englishmen already were showing an inclination to ‘bung it on’. | |
| (con. 1944) Rats in New Guinea 210: He’ll probably have another crack at the Nips when they bung it on at first light. | |
| Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 34: ‘Steady on there, mate,’ Chilla advised. [...] ‘We’ll bung it on later, if they don’t read the report.’. | |
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 299: Sutho bungs it on a trainer for the lend of one of his hacks to use in the promo stunt. | |
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 161: Gloaming [i.e. a racehorse] sat right on Beauford’s hammer and bunged on the pressure just before the turn into the straight. |
3. to overcharge.
| Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 27: The Doc’s paying, Ikey, so bung it on, mate. |
4. (Aus./N.Z.) to exaggerate, to act temperamentally.
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 23/1: bung it on skite, exaggerate, behave temperamentally; common among antipodean shearers. | |
| Between the Devlin 46: [S]he writhed in absolute, bunged-on joy. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
to leave.
| DSUE. |
1. to put on a garment, to get dressed, usu. in comb. with an article of clothing, e.g. bung on a jacket.
| Cop This Lot 216: So a coupla blokes come back from Italy or wherever they bloody been an’ bung on the lah-de-dah. | |
| Foetal Attraction (1994) 66: I just hate the Mother Theresa act your friends bung on. |
2. to add (for effect).
| How Does Your Garden Grow? (1974) 129: ‘[N]o point in bunging on a drama in front of all those parole roosters there’. |
3. to organize, to arrange; to affect.
| Gone Fishin’ 212: He likes to bung on an act. An’ ’e’s bungin’ one on now. All this pommy talk, an’ wantin’ to be an articheck. | |
| G’DAY 83: Shane is really bunging on an act and sucking up to all the trendies. | |
| Bug (Aus.) 1 Nov. 🌐 Aboriginal dancers who bung on shows for tourists are good coons. |
4. to perform an action.
| Burn 26: What are you bungin’ on, throwin’ ’em out? |
see under blue n.4
to hit.
| DSUE (8th edn) 157/2: since ca. 1950. |
1. to drink a dram (orig. of gin), to drink heartily, to get drunk; as n. bung your eye(s), gin (see cites 1737) .
| Newcastle Courant 29 Oct. 2/1: Bunging their Eyes (the Cant words for Gin) was the Cause of saving lives. | |
| Derby Mercury 17 Nov. 2/2: They were attacked by three footpads [...] They were very civil to the Gentlemen. One of them pulled a Bottle of Gin out of his Pocket and asked them if they would please bung their eyes with them. | |
| Derby Mercury 6 Apr. 1/1: A Tragi-Comical Farce [...] Written orginally in Hebrew and translated by Solomon Bung Your Eyees, Gent. | |
| Newcastle Courant 29 Oct. 2/1: A woman with a Basket under her Arm was crying ‘Bung your Eyes,’ a Beadle hearing her, said, ‘You are retailing Spirituous Liquors and I shall take you up’. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Scots. Mag. 1 June 19/2: I must, I will have Gin; this skillet take, Pawn it — No more I’ll roast or boil or bake; [...] Starve on ye brats! so I but bung my eye; Starve? No! this Gin ev’n mother’s milk excels. | |
| Drury Lane Jrnl 16 Jan. 5: Sunday last Moll Draggletail, alias Foulmouth, alias Fire-ship, alias Strip-me-naked, alias Bung your eye, was [...] charg’d with an intent to commit fornication, by street-walking in the Strand. | |
| Gent.’s Mag. Dec. 559/2: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, [...] it is also said that he has 50. Bung’d his Eye . | |
| ‘They all Do It’ in I (1975) 261: Some cry’d, Bung your Eye Sir. | |
| ‘Connelly’s Ale’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 387: And all his delight is in bunging of Ale. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Bung your Eye. Drink a Dram; strictly speaking, to Drink till one’s Eye is bunged up or Closed. | |
| , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn). |
| Hull Advertiser 28 Dec. 4/4: In yon dark dale [...] I — bung’d my eye with brandy and black beer! | |
| Song Smith 88: Your Tapster loves to bung his eye. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. | |
| ‘Sonnets for the Fancy’ in Boxiana III 621: Her eyes suffus’d with tears, and bung’d with gin. | |
| ‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 2/2: Och! Judy dear, a fig for beer, / The pleasure sure is greater, / When you are dry, to bung your eye, / With a quartern of the cratur! | |
| ‘Fun of the Fair’ in II (1979) 106: A glass of good gin to bung your eye. | |
| Paul Pry 11 Dec. n.p.: We advise ‘Ugly Buck,’ of Wilmington-place, Clerkenwell, not to drink so much gin and water [...] or he may have to sing to the tune of ‘Young bung my eye’. |
2. (US) a drinking toast.
| Cowboy Songs 252: Bung yer eye. | |
| Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words. |
see under side n.
see under bull n.6
1. (US) to protrude, to stick out.
| Mountain Sentinel (Ebensburg, PA) 3 Apr. 1/1: I am ashamed of you — eyes all bunged out your head, bloated, sottish. | |
| Worthington Advance (MN) 15 jan. 6/1: It was at the dfinner table that her eyes bunged out with surprise. | |
| DN 1 414: Bug out [...] ‘His eyes bugged out, he bugged out his eyes’ showing astonishment [...] Bung out: same as bug out, above. | |
| Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 31 Jan. 17/6: When they spotted me all covered with mud comin’ along with the supe their eyes bunged out so you could hang your hat on ’em . | |
| Harvester 338: Won’t her eyes bung out when I tell her about this? [DARE]. | |
| (con. 1860) Joshua 45: She had seen him [...] biting his lower lip until it bunged out [DARE]. |
2. (N.Z.) to die.
| Truth (Wellington) 9 May 1: It’s good policy to keep the premiums paid up. Rather-r-r-r, especially if it’s the wife’s, and she bungs out first [DNZE]. |