An overcoat. In Charles Lever’s ‘Jack Hinton’ (1843) one of the characters has on “the green coat cut round in jockey fashion,” and over it “a white bang-up” (p. 146). This word has escaped the notice of the N.E.D.
1830. “Bang-up cords” were advertised by Forbes and Freeman of Boston: Mass. Spy, June 9.
1842. A gentleman dressed in a dark colored fashionable bang-up, with tight-bodied coat, neck-cloth, breast-pin, hair and whiskers to match.—Spirit of the Times (Phila.), Jan. 13.
1842. “That gentlemanly looking man in the snuff-colored bang-up, that’s Mayor Scott; he’s the very man.” “How so?” cried a tall strapping fellow in a white bang-up.—Id., Jan. 28.
1853. He was attired in an old bang-up, black vest, grey pants, and straw hat.—Public Ledger (Phila.), June 11 (de Vere).
