bung

Noun

bung (plural bungs)

1. A stopper, alternative to a cork, often made of rubber used to prevent fluid passing through the neck of a bottle, vat, a hole in a vessel etc.
   • 1996, Dudley Pope, Life in Nelson's Navy

     With the heavy seas trying to broach the boat they baled — and eventually found someone had forgotten to put the bung in.

   • 2008, Christine Carroll, The Senator's Daughter

     Andre pulled the bung from the top of a barrel, applied a glass tube with a suction device, and withdrew a pale, almost greenish liquid.

2. A cecum or anus, especially of a slaughter animal.
3. (slang) A bribe.
   • 2006 December 21, Leader, “Poorly tackled”, in the Guardian‎:

     It is almost a year since Luton Town's manager, Mike Newell, decided that whistle-blowing was no longer the preserve of referees and went public about illegal bungs.

4. The orifice in the bilge of a cask through which it is filled; bunghole.
5. (obsolete, slang) A sharper or pickpocket.
   • Shakespeare

     You filthy bung, away.

Verb

bung (third-person singular simple present bungs, present participle bunging, simple past and past participle bunged)

1. (transitive) To plug, as with a bung.
   • 1810, Agricultural Surveys: Worcester (1810)

     It has not yet been ascertained, which is the precise time when it becomes indispensable to bung the cider. The best, I believe, that can be done, is to seize the critical moment which precedes the formation of a pellicle on the surface...

   • 2006, A. G. Payne, Cassell's Shilling Cookery

     Put the wine into a cask, cover up the bung-hole to keep out the dust, and when the hissing sound ceases, bung the hole closely, and leave the wine untouched for twelve months.

2. (Britain, Australia, transitive, informal) To put or throw somewhere without care; to chuck.
   • 2004, Bob Ashley, Food and cultural studies

     And to sustain us while we watch or read, we go to the freezer, take out a frozen pizza, bung it in the microwave and make do.

3. (transitive) To batter, bruise; to cause to bulge or swell.
4. (transitive) To pass a bribe.

Adjective

bung (not comparable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Broken, not in working order.
   • 1922, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Karen Oslund (introduction), The Worst Journey in the World, 2004, page 365,

     The evening we reached the glacier Bowers^{[Henry Robertson Bowers]} wrote:

     […] My right eye has gone bung, and my left one is pretty dicky.

   • 1953, Eric Linklater, A Year of Space, page 206,

     ‘Morning Mrs. Weissnicht. I′ve just heard as how your washing-machine′s gone bung.’

   • 1997, Lin Van Hek, The Ballad of Siddy Church, page 219,

     It′s the signal box, the main switchboard, that′s gone bung!

   • 2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 9,

     Henry had said, “Half a million bloomin′ acres. A quarter of a million blanky sheep shorn a year, and they can′t keep on two blokes. It′s not because wer′e union, mate. It′s because we′re newchums. Something′s gone bung with this country.”

Alternative forms

• bong, bonge, bounge

Noun

bung (plural bungs)

1. (obsolete, Britain, thieves' cant) A purse.
   • 1611, Middleton, Thomas, “The Roaring Girl”, in Bullen, Arthur Henry, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton‎, volume 4, published 1885, Act 5, Scene 1, pages 128–129:

     Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

Hypernyms

• dushk

Coordinate terms

• ilqe, lis, qarr, shpardh

Synonyms

• abang (bang)
• kakak
• engko
• nana
• uda

Derived terms

• bungim
• bungples

Derived terms