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

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

Both men are doing a bang-up job so far.

From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2025

The Old Prioress, who precedes Lidoine as the order’s Mother Superior, comes to a grisly end early in the opera, with a bang-up death scene that some singers approach with Meryl Streep-like meticulousness.

From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2023

“Well, you were doing a bang-up job of it,” she said.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

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

You did a bang up job when you took the helm.

From Slate ● May 11, 2021

A new book about the software makers who are quietly building modern society is bang up to date in a fast-moving world, says reviewer Li Gong.

From Nature ● Apr. 4, 2019

Chefs such as Campbell are brave and exciting to me because to even pepper a menu with the term “vegan” is to bang up against decades of culinary prejudice.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 22, 2018

He didn’t look at it or nothing, he just stuck it in his pocket and I heard it bang up against some silver dollars.

From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis

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