Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. UK Und., also banged away) locked up in one’s cell; thus, generically, in prison.

1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 168: Banged up on remand in Brixton.
1982		J. Sullivan ‘It Never Rains’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Next thing I knew I was banged up in here! They ain’t even charged me with nuffing!
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 216: ‘You a fitness fanatic?’ ‘Only when I’m banged away in here.’.
1997		(con. 1960s) D. Farson Never a Normal Man 271: At Christmas they send more than 300 cards to their mates who are banged up and if a member of the Firm goes inside, the Colonel [a nickname for Ronnie] sees their families are all right.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 167: Soft cunt drivin while pissed up, you. Count yerself lucky yeh didn’t get banged up.
2010		K. Richards Life 440: Roy was banged up [...] in the famous Arthur Road prison in Bombay.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 330: ‘In prison [...] You weren’t there and I needed you. I couldn’t trust you not to get banged up’.
2017		Unknown T ‘Bop with Smoke’ 🎵 Now Dot-Dot’s banged up eating porridge.
2018		G. Gilmore Class Act [ebook] ‘[H]alf the blokes what ever represented me should of been banged up’.

2. in fig. use, trapped.

1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 172: Banged-up Caught red-handed. Locked in a cell, and thus in any place where one cannot conveniently leave, and thus, by extension: for a female – pregnant; for a male – infected with venereal disease. Not used in mixed company in the latter senses.
1983		A. Payne ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ Minder [TV script] 36: Terry, I do not intend to spend the rest of my days banged up in some geriatric nick, playing housey-housey with a bunch of old dears.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 17: Banged up twenty-three hours a day.
1999		Guardian G2 17 Nov. 12: He soon found himself banged up in the hole.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 57: It all comes piling out, everything that’s banged up within her.
2001		Indep. Rev. 19 Apr. 1: He’s been banged up in Zermatt for impersonating a yeti.

3. of a building or place, locked up.

1979

F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 118: The dump was banged up tighter than a pawn-broker’s till.