Word.ws English Dictionary

bungstarter

bungstarter noun: a tool for opening barrels by removing the bung.

Noun

bungstarter (plural bungstarters)

  1. A tool for opening barrels by removing the bung.
    • But he had not yet learned to estimate these cool, languid, Southwestern knights of the bungstarter, who had the manners of an Earl of Pawtucket, ...1914, O. Henry, “Doubleday, Page & company, for Review of reviews co”, in Heart of the West, page 133
    • The Portuguese equivalent of bungstarter whiffed Angus Jones by an eyelash.1929, John Russell, Color of the East, W. W. Norton, page 229

Examples of bungstarter in a sentence

  • That's where the barkeeper took a bungstarter and killed a man who was shooting wild.1941, Clark Barnaby Firestone, Flowing South, National Travel Club, page 138:
  • "Pat, let me have that keg," and the schoolteacher proceeded to hammer around the bung, in the way of the orthodox bungstarter.1943, Ernest Thompson Seton, “The Seton village press”, in The Preacher of Cedar Mountain, page 134:
  • When he came around the end of the bar he laid down the pistol and he was carrying a bungstarter in one hand.1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:

Forms of bungstarter

pluralbungstarters
alternative formbung starter

Origin of bungstarter

From bung + starter.

Questions about bungstarter

What does bungstarter mean?
Bungstarter means a tool for opening barrels by removing the bung.
How do you use bungstarter in a sentence?
That's where the barkeeper took a bungstarter and killed a man who was shooting wild.
What part of speech is bungstarter?
Bungstarter is a noun.
What is the plural of bungstarter?
The plural of bungstarter is bungstarters.

Words near bungstarter in the dictionary

  1. bungs
  2. bungs it on
  3. bungs on
  4. bungs out
  5. bungs up
  6. bungstarter
  7. bungstarters
  8. Bungtod
  9. Bungtown
  10. bungu
  11. Bunguluke

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bungstarter (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.

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Cite this entry: “bungstarter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bungstarter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.