subs. (old cant).—1. A purse; a SKIN (q.v.); a POGE (q.v.): also BONG and BOUNG: Fr. plotte. [MURRAY: ‘its resemblance to the O.E. pung, “a purse,” is worth notice.’] Hence TO NIP A BUNG = to cut a purse.
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1814), 65. BOUNG, a purse. Ibid., 86. Ibid. (1573), 66. To nyp a BOUNG, to cut a purse.
1591. GREENE, The Second Part of Conny-catching, in Works, x., 96. The Nip vseth his knife, and if he see a BOUNG lie faire, strikes the stroke. Ibid. (1592), The Third Part of Conny-catching, 157. Oft this crew of mates met together, and said there was no hope of nipping the BOUNG [purse] because he held open his gowne so wide, and walked in such an open place.
1592. GREENE, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier [GROSART, Works (1881–83) xi., 283]. You can lift or nip a BOUNGE like a guire Coue, if you want pence.
1600. Sir John Oldcastle, v., 2.
| Be lusty, my lass; come, for Lancashire, | |
| We must nip the BOUNG for these crowns. |
1607. DEKKER, Jests to Make You Merie, in Wks. (GROSART), II., 308. A rum cove’s BUNG (so called in their canting use of speech) (and as much as to say in ours, a rich chuffe’s purse).
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 37 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. BUNG is now vsed for a pocket, heretofore for a purse.
1620. A Description of Love [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 15]. Then in a throng, I nip his BUNG.
1631. BRATHWAITE, Clitus’s Whimzies, 12. His nipps, ints, BUNGS, and prinados, of whom he holds in fee, oft times prevent the lawyer by diving too deep into his client’s pocket.
c. 1636. The London Chanticleers, Sc. i. I mean to be as perfect a pickpocket, as good as ever nipped the judge’s BUNG while he was condemning him.
c. 1658. CLEVELAND, Cleivelandi Vindiciæ, 99 (ed. 1677). He is in the Inquisition of the Purse an Authentick Gypsie, that nips your BUNG with a canting Ordinance.
1671. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, I., v., 47. BOUNG, a Purse.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BUNG, c. a Purse, Pocket, or Fob.
1706. E. COLES, English Dictionary. BUNG, c. purse.
1740. Poor Robin.
| Meanwhile the cut-purse in the throng, | |
| Hath a fair means to nyp a BUNG. |
2. (old).—A pickpocket: also BUNG-NIPPER (q.v.).
1598. SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV., ii. 4. Doll. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy BUNG, away! By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an’ you play the saucy cuttle with me.
1658. An Age for Apes, 232.
| My BUNG observing this, takes hold of time, | |
| Just as this lord was drawing for a prime, | |
| And smoothly rims his purse that lay beside him. |
3. (common).—A brewer: the landlord of a public house, etc.
1863. Cornhill Magazine (The Inner Life of a Man-of-War), Feb. From time immemorial these gentlemen [master’s assistants] have had to stand at the grog-butt and see the grog served out—an important duty, the discharge of which has invested them, such is the playfulness of naval humour, with the title of BUNGS.
1884. Graphic, Feb. 23, 170, 1. That Sir Wilfrid Lawson had turned BUNG, and applied for a spirit licence.
4. (vulgar).—The anus: also BUNGHOLE (q.v.). BUNG-UPWARDS = arse-upwards: of one lying on his face.
Adj. (common).—Tipsy; fuddled; SCREWED (q.v.).
Verb. (pugilistic).—1. To close; to shut up: usually TO BUNG UP.
1593. G. HARVEY, Pierce’s Supererogation, in Wks. (Grosart) II., 128. That will BUNG-VP their mouthes with a Collyrium of all the stale iestes in a country.
1599. NASHE, Lenten Stuffe [GROSART, Works, V., 247]. The waies beyond sea were so BUNGD VP with your dayly oratours or Beadsmen and your crutchet or croutchant friers … that a snaile coulde not wriggle in her hornes betwixt them.
1835. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 1 S., xix. I BUNGED UP both eyes for him.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 76. She BUNGED UP his left just to steady his phiz.
2. (old).—To give; to pass; to hand over; to drink; to perform almost any action. BUNG over the rag = hand over the money.
3. (old).—To deceive by lying: see CRAM.
TO GO BUNG, subs. phr. (Australian).—1. To become bankrupt; to fail.
1885. Australian Printers’ Keepsake, 40. He was importuned to desist, as his musical talent had ‘GONE BUNG,’ probably from over-indulgence in confectionery.
1893. The Argus, April 15 (by Oriel), 13, 2.
| All flesh is grass … like grass it is withered away, | |
| And we gaze on a bank in the evening, and lo, in the morn ’tis BUNG. |
1893. PROFESSOR GOSMAN, The Argus, April 24, 7, 4. Banks might fail, but the treasures of thought could never ‘go bung.’
1893. The Herald (Melbourne), April 25, 2, 4. One member of the mischief-making brotherhood wrote the words ‘GONE BUNG’ under a notice on the Government Savings Bank, and he was brought before the Police Court charged with damaging the bank’s property to the extent of 3d.
1896. MORRIS, Austral English, s.v. BUNG. In Melbourne in the times that followed the collapse of the landboom, it was a common expression to say that Mr. So-and-so had ‘GONE BUNG,’ sc. filed his schedule, or made a composition with creditors; or that an institution had ‘gone bung,’ sc. closed its doors, collapsed. In parts of Australia, in New South Wales and Queensland, the word bung is an aboriginal word meaning ‘dead,’ and even though the slang word be of English origin, its frequency of use in Australia may be due to the existence of the aboriginal word, which forms the last syllable in Billabong (q.v.), and in the aboriginal word milbung, blind, literally, eye-dead.
2. (Australian).—To die: see quot. 1896. Subs. 1, and HOP-THE-TWIG.
1847. J. D. LANG, Cooksland in North-eastern Australia, 430. A place called Umpie BUNG, or the dead houses. [It is now a suburb of Brisbane, Humpy-bong.]
1881. A. C. GRANT, Bush-Life in Queensland, ii., 175. ‘Missis bail BONG, ony cawbawn prighten’ (Missis not dead, only dreadfully frightened).
1882. A. J. BOYD, Old Colonials, 73. But just before you hands ’im [the horse] over and gets the money, he goes BONG on you (i.e., he dies).
1885. H. FINCH-HATTON, Advance Australia! x. Their [the Blacks’] ordinary creed is very simple. ‘Directly me BUNG (die) me jump up white feller,’ and this seems to be the height of their ambition.
TO GO BUNG INTO, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To fall (or be pitchforked) into.
1900. KIPLING, Stalky & Co., 30. We mayn’t be aware you were followin’ us this afternoon mayn’t we? Thought you were stalkin’ us, eh? Why, we led you BUNG INTO it, of course.
