bang up

See also: bang-up

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

bang up (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic, often hyphenated) Good, superior, excellent.

   He's doing a bang up job.

Translations

superior, excellent

• German: spitzenmäßig (de), erstklassig (de)

Verb

bang up (third-person singular simple present bangs up, present participle banging up, simple past and past participle banged up)

1. (transitive, informal) To damage.

   He banged up his new car last night.

2. (transitive, informal) To put someone in prison, or into their individual cell.

   Synonym: dub up

   He was so drunk that the police banged him up for the night.

   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques”, in RAIL, number 947, page 56:

     A combination of having too many plates spinning, ill-health, being banged up for debt (1822-23) and bankruptcy all served to impede James' progress, although the Central Junction Railway - a 16-mile horse-drawn tramway between Stratford and Moreton (Gloucestershire) - did materialise in 1826.

3. (slang, intransitive) To inject a recreational drug.
   • 1971, Army Digest, volume 26, page 31:

     I knew some fellows who banged up, I mean heroin, but I kind of stayed away from it.

Usage notes

• In all senses the object of this verb may appear before or after the particle up. However, if the object is a pronoun, then it is placed before the particle.

Translations

to damage

• French: démolir (fr), (formal) endommager (fr), (colloquial) flinguer (fr), abimer (fr)
• German: zerdeppern (de), demolieren (de)
• Portuguese: danificar (pt), estragar (pt)
• Russian: разби́ть (ru) n (razbítʹ), разру́шить (ru) n (razrúšitʹ)