4. (Stock Exchange.)—To loudly offer stock with the intention of
lowering the price.
To be banged up to the eyes, phr. (common).—To be drunk. For synonyms,
see Screwed.
Bang-Beggar, subs. (old).—A constable or beadle. It is not quite clear
whether this is not merely a dialecticism. In Lowland Scotch it
signifies a strong staff.
Banger, subs. (common).—A lie. Generally, that’s a banger! This elegant
phrase is sometimes varied by ‘that’s a whopper’ (q.v.); or the now
classical ‘thumper’ (q.v.), an invention of the late Lord Iddesleigh.
(Yale College).—A club-like cane or stick; a bludgeon. This word is one
of the Yale vocables.—Hall’s College Words and Customs.
Yale Lit. Mag., vol. XX., p. 75.
The Freshman reluctantly turned the key,
Expecting a Sophomore gang to see,
Who, with faces masked and bangers stout,
Had come resolved to smoke him out.
Bang-Off, adv. (familiar).—Without stopping; right away; e.g., ‘I wrote
as promised bang-off,’ i.e., without delay. [From bang, a loud, sudden
sound + off, movement from a place or thing.]
Bang-Out. To bang-out, verbal phr. (common).—To depart hurriedly and
with noise.
Adv. phr.—Completely, entirely, combined with suddenness; e.g., ‘the
candle went bang-out.’
Bang-Pitcher, subs. (old).—A drunkard. Possibly only dialectical.
Bangster subs. (provincial).—According to Jamieson:—1. A violent and
disorderly person, who regards no law but his own will. 2. A victor. 3.
A braggart. 4. A loose woman.
1820. Scott, The Abbot, ch. xix. If the Pope’s champions are to be
bangsters in our very change houses, we shall soon have the
changelings back again, [h.]
1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxiii. If you are so certain of
being the bangster—so very certain, I mean, of sweeping stakes,
what harm will Miss Clara come to by your having the use of her
siller.
Bang-Straw, subs. (old).—A nickname for a thresher of corn; a
provincialism.
Bang-Tailed, adj. (popular).—Short tailed. Usually applied to horses.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. ‘These bang-tailed
little sinners any good?’ said Drysdale, throwing some
cock-a-bondies across the table. ‘Yes, I never like to be without
them and a governor or two.’
Bang-Up, adj. phr. (common).—First-rate; quite up to the mark; A 1;
slap up; in the height of fashion. Also banged-up.
1812. H. and J. Smith, Rejected Addresses, p. 188. Dance a bang-up
theatrical cotillion.
1842. Lever, Jack Hinton, ch. vii. His hat set jauntily on one
side, his spotted neckcloth knotted in bang-up mode.
1844. Quarterly Review, XXIV., 368. We could not resist giving a
specimen of John Thorpe ... altogether the best portrait of a
species which, though almost extinct, cannot yet be quite classed
among the Palæotheria, the bang-up Oxonian.
1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, vol. I., ch. xxxiv. There appeared on the
cliff in a tax cart, drawn by a bang-up pony ... his friends, the
Sutbury Pet and the Rottingdean Fibber.
Subs.—Also used substantively as in the following example; that which
is quite right; the ‘thing’; the ‘go.’
1882. Punch, LXXXII., 185, 1. Modern Life in London, or Tom and
Jerry back again. The trio turned into the Arcade, and saw a number
of gay sparks and fair ones promenading. ’Twas a curious sight, a
glimpse of Life in London, one of its primest features, and yet, as
the Corinthian remarked to his Coz, these people seemed like the
‘ghosts of a former generation.’ ‘These then are the dandies, the
fops, the goes and the bang-ups, these the Corinthians of to-day,’
was also Tom’s exclamation to young Bob, who said, ‘I don’t know
about being Corinthians, but some of these fellows are very ‘good
form,’ and as to being bang-up, a good many poor old chappies are
deuced hard-up.’
Verb tr.—To make smart; produce in first-rate style.
1821. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Tour iii., c. v.
Pat to his neckcloth gave an air
In style, and á la militaire;
His pocket too a kerchief bore
With scented water sprinkled o’er;
Thus banged-up, sweeten’d, and clean shav’d,
The sage the dinner-table braved.
Bangy, subs. (Winchester College).—‘Brown’ sugar. From Bangalore, a
once coarse-growing sugar country.
Adj.—Colour of brown sugar; e.g., bangy bags, brown trousers. These
were also called bangies. So universally was the term bangy used to
designate a brownish hue, that a gate of that colour at Winchester
College, formerly leading from Grass Court into Sick House Meads, was
called the Bangy Gate. The name is now often used for the gate by
Racquet Court, into Kingsgate Street.
Banian-Days or Banyan-Days, subs. (nautical).—Those days in which
sailors have no flesh meat. Probably derived from the practice of the
Banians, a caste of Hindoos, traders or merchants, who entirely
abstained from all animal food.
1690. Ovington, in Yules’ Anglo-Indian Glossary. Of kitcheney
(butter, rice, and dai) the European sailors feed in these parts,
and are forced at such times to a Pagan abstinence from flesh,
which creates in them an utter detestation to those banian-days as
they call them.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxv. They told me that on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays, the ship’s company had no allowance of
meat, and that these meagre days were called banyan-days, the
reason of which they did not know; but I have since learned they
take their denomination from a sect of devotees in some parts of
the East Indies, who never taste flesh.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Christ’s Hospital). We had three banyan to four
meat days in the week.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. lxiii. If he might be so bold as to
carry on the Eastern metaphor, he would say, knowing the excellence
of the Colonel’s claret and the splendour of his hospitality, that
he would prefer a cocoanut day at the Colonel’s to a banyan-day
anywhere else.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. [From
Strolling Players’ bill.] Wooldridge’s Theatre. Wanted 700 men, to
man that splendid first-class, Frigate, ‘The Theatre,’ commanded by
A. J. Wooldridge, now lying at her moorings, in Cheapside. Mr.
Wooldridge, with all due respects to his brother Tars, hopes they
will lend a hand to man his Vessel. He cannot offer them a barrel
of Ale, but he will make them a promise of his unfeigned thanks and
gratitude for this and past favours, with his hearty good wishes
for the prosperity of the Town and Trade of Brighton; that his
Shipmates, wherever bound, may set sail with fair wind and good
passage; that they may never have short allowance—banyan days; or a
southerly wind in the Bread Basket.
Banjo, subs. (common).—A bed-pan; also called a fiddle or slipper
(q.v.)—the latter from an improved shape which allows of its being
slipped in without disturbing the patient.
Bank, subs. (common).—A lump sum of money; one’s fortune.
Verb (thieves’).—1. To secure; to obtain (in a pilfering sense).