bung
/ˈbʌŋ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Midlands/bʊŋ/
bung noun: 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.
Noun (1)
bung (plural bungs)
- 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.
- With the heavy seas trying to broach the boat they baled — and eventually found someone had forgotten to put the bung in.1996, Dudley Pope, Life in Nelson's Navy
- 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.2008, Christine Carroll, The Senator's Daughter
- The cecum or anus, especially of livestock but sometimes (slang) of humans.
- Chitterlings are comprised of the hog's large intestine and may include the bung.1969, Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications for Edible By-products, page 9
- A bribe.
- 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.2006 December 21, Leader, “Poorly tackled”, in the Guardian
- Is this a case of mere ‘bungs’ (a form of bribery) at play in the book trade, a success bought with massive advertising effort and distribution through the author’s drugstore chain?2021 April 26, Corinna Norrick-Rühl, Christian Alexander Peter, Lena Schüler, ““Pay to Play” in the German Book Trade?”, in Publishing Research Quarterly, volume 37, →DOI, pages 241–254
- The orifice in the bilge of a cask through which it is filled; bung-hole.
- A sharper or pickpocket.
- You filthy bung, away.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- The landlord of a public house.
- "Well, sir, I haven't got one," said the landlord, "or you should have it directly." […] "Could you oblige me with such a thing as a postage stamp?" "No," said the Bung; "don't keep 'em!"1878, Fun, volumes 27-28, page 11
Verb
bung (third-person singular simple present bungs, present participle bunging, simple past and past participle bunged)
- To plug, as with a bung.
- 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...1810, Agricultural Surveys: Worcester (1810)
- 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.2006, A. G. Payne, Cassell's Shilling Cookery
- To put, throw, or place something without care; to chuck.
- "Doctors are queer birds. This one didn't mind a bit dabbling about that old thing to find out what had happened inside her. He's fixed her up for tonight and is coming tomorrow to put her leg in plaster, or something. He wanted to bung her off to a hospital, but I persuaded him not to."1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 31
- Of course, the weird thing is that he found Marianne Faithfull at the same time and bunged it onto her, and it was a fucking hit, so already we're songwriters.1996, Stanley Booth, quoting Keith Richards, Keith, St. Martin's Publishing Group, →ISBN
- To batter, bruise; to cause to bulge or swell.
- [T]he Chicken had been tapped, and bunged, and had received pepper, and had been made groggy, and had come up piping, and had endured a complication of similar strange inconveniences, until he had been gone into and finished.1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC
- To pass a bribe to (someone).
Adjective
bung (not comparable)
- Broken, not in working order; damaged; injured.
- […] My right eye has gone bung, and my left one is pretty dicky.1922, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Karen Oslund (introduction), The Worst Journey in the World, 2004, page 365, The evening we reached the glacier Bowers wrote
- ‘Morning Mrs. Weissnicht. I′ve just heard as how your washing-machine′s gone bung.’1953, Eric Linklater, A Year of Space, page 206
Noun (2)
bung (plural bungs)
- A purse.
- Oft thsi crew of mates met together, and said there was no hope of nipping the boung because he held open his gowne so wide, and walked in such an open place.1592, Robert Green, The Thirde & Last Part of Conny-catching, Bodleian Library (Malone 575), London: John Lane. Reprinted in 1923, Harrison, G. B. (ed.), The Bodley Head Quartos III, Plainstow, Great...
- 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.1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129
bung meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
bung in Urdu
- پیپے کی ڈاٹ
bung in Malayalam
- plug, stopper, cork
- മൂടി, അടപ്പ്, രോധനി, ആപ്പ്, തിരുക്കടപ്പ്, കോർക്കടപ്പ്
bung in Kannada
- ದೊಡ್ಡ ಬೆಣೆ, ಬಿರಡೆ
Examples of bung in a sentence
- 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.2004, Bob Ashley, Food and cultural studies:
- Happened to me the other day, I was there minding my own business when a trolley hit my bung foot at about Warp Nine speed.1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 140:
- It′s the signal box, the main switchboard, that′s gone bung!1997, Lin Van Hek, The Ballad of Siddy Church, page 219:
- Something′s gone bung with this country.”2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 9:
Forms of bung
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bungs |
| alternative form | bong |
| alternative form | bonge |
| alternative form | boung |
| alternative form | bounge |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bungs |
| present participle | bunging |
| past participle | bunged |
| past | bunged |
Origin of bung
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”).
Borrowed from Yagara bang (“dead”).
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”).
Words formed from bung
- bung eye
- bung-full
- go bung
- bung-nipper
- bung-hole
- bungstarter
- on the bung
- bung it on
- bung on
- bung out
- bung up
- rebung
- unbung
Phrases with bung
Words that rhyme with bung
Questions about bung
- What does bung mean?
- Bung means 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.
- What is bung in Urdu?
- Bung in Urdu is پیپے کی ڈاٹ. See Bung meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use bung in a sentence?
- 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.
- What part of speech is bung?
- Bung can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce bung?
- Bung is pronounced /ˈbʌŋ/.
- What is the plural of bung?
- The plural of bung is bungs.
Words near bung in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bung (page history and authors); bung (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bung (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); bung (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-bung.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bung.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bung. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.