bang-up

American

[bang-uhp] / ˈbæŋˌʌp /

adjective

Informal.

excellent; extraordinary.

bang up British

verb

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

bang up Idioms

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.

Etymology

Origin of bang-up

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

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

bang-up bang up

Owens herself manages to do a bang-up job of distracting people from the way she doesn’t practice what she preaches.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026

And the stock’s bang-up trading open shows that it wasn’t only the big institutional money granted early access to the IPO that wanted a piece.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 24, 2026

If Newsom really hopes to be president someday, the best thing he could do is a bang-up job in his final 22 months as governor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2025

Zahler’s skill at staging a bang-up set piece is undeniable, and he displays a welcomely nuanced interest in the blurry, gray lines that separate good and evil.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2023

Hera and Hephaestus passed me, and while Hephaestus was a little grumpy about my jumping on his throne, he thought I’d done “a pretty bang-up job, mostly.”

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

Listening to this book puts one in mind of Dylan’s verdict on Elvis Costello’s work: “Too many thoughts, way too wordy. Too many ideas that just bang up together.”

From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2022

I was captain and we were bang up for that one, I can assure you.

From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2022

Here, the first drop of precipitation and bang: up go a forest of brollies.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2019

Beautifully illustrated, history-rich and bang up to date.

From Nature ● Jul. 18, 2017

I took a rag out of my tote sack and wrapped the knife in it so’s it wouldn’t bang up ’gainst none of my chunking stones.

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023