bung

See also: bụng

English

Wooden bungs for wine barrels

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbʌŋ/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌŋ

Etymology 1

From Medieval Dutch bonge, bonne or bonghe (stopper), or perhaps from French bonde, which may itself be either of Germanic origin or from Proto-Celtic *bunda—either way probably from puncta (hole), the feminine singular form of Latin punctus, perfect passive participle of pungō (pierce into, prick).

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.
Translations

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.
Derived terms
  • bung it on (verb)
  • bung on (verb)
Translations

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Yagara bang (dead).

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.”
Derived terms
  • go bung

Etymology 3

From bouget (wallet, purse or bag), from Middle English bogett, bouget, bowgette (leather pouch), from Old French bougette, diminutive of bouge (leather bag, wallet), from Late Latin bulga (wallet, purse), from Gaulish bolgā, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (sack, bag, stomach), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰólǵʰ-os (skin bag, bolster), from *bʰelǵʰ- (to swell).

Alternative forms

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.
Derived terms
  • bung-nipper (pickpocket)

References

  • bung” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
  • Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
  • Australian National Dictionary, 1988
  • Macquarie Dictionary, Second edition, 1991
  • Macquarie Slang Dictionary, Revised edition, 2000
  • “bung” in Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: The Ballantyne Press, 1889–1890, page 117.
  • Farmer, John Stephen (1890) Slang and Its Analogues, volume 1, page 383

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *bunga, from either (1) *bʰeh₂ǵnos, nasalized variant of Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵós (beech) (compare English beech, Ancient Greek φηγός (phēgós, oak), or (2) earlier *bunka, from *bʰeu-n-iko, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (to grow) (compare Armenian բուն (bun, tree trunk), Dutch bonk (clump, lump)).

Noun

bung m

  1. chestnut oak (Quercus sessilis)

Hypernyms

Coordinate terms


Indonesian

Noun

bung (plural bung-bung, first-person possessive bungku, second-person possessive bungmu, third-person possessive bungnya)

  1. A father figure, figurative father.
    Bung KarnoFather Sukarno
  2. (colloquial, used in the vocative) A term of address for someone, typically a man; A dude, fella, mac
  3. (informal) Used to address a man whose name is unknown.

See also

Further reading


Malay

Pronunciation

Noun

bung

  1. brother (older male sibling)

Synonyms


Palauan

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *buŋa. Cognate with Malay bunga, Tagalog bunga.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /buŋ/

Noun

bung

  1. flower

Tok Pisin

Verb

bung

  1. To gather, meet
    • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, 1:9:
      (please add an English translation of this quote)

Derived terms

This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. Tok Pisin is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.

Vietnamese

Etymology

Compare bùng.

Pronunciation

Verb

bung

  1. to swell from inside out
  2. to burst

Derived terms

Derived terms
  • bung lụa
  • nở bung
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