bang-up

[bang-uhp]

adjective

Informal.

1. excellent; extraordinary.

bang up

verb

1. slang:prison,  (tr, adverb) to lock up (a prisoner) in his or her cell, esp for the night

Word History and Origins

Origin of bang up¹

First recorded in 1800–10; adj. use of verb phrase bang up

Idioms and Phrases

Damage, injure, as in Banging up the car a second time will make Dad very unhappy, or Mother fell down the stairs and was all banged up. The verb to bang alone had this meaning from the 1500s on, up being added in the late 1800s. In the early 1800s it gave rise to the colloquial adjective bang-up, for excellent or very successful, as in David did a bang-up job baking the birthday cake.

Related Words

• batter 
• break 
• burn 
• contaminate 
• harm 
• hurt 
• impair 
• infect 
• injure 
• maim 
• mangle 
• mar 
• pollute 
• ravage 
• ruin 
• scorch 
• smash 
• tarnish 
• tear 
• undermine