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

Like many groups that weekend, they had equipment problems during the set, but resolved them with a bang-up 20-minute medley of “Everyday People” and “Dance to the Music.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 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

It takes up as much room as a Frisbee, but it does a bang-up job of keeping the grit out of my lunchtime soups and salads.

From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2022

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

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

“It encodes the stars' formation history from the end of the ‘cosmic Dark Ages,' hundreds million years after the big bang, up to present day.”

From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2018

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

From Nature ● Jul. 18, 2017

We’re saying, “Our kids are lovely and we don’t want them to bang up their knees and you’re treating us ... ” Right?

From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2017

But Villa bang up there in second place?

From The Guardian ● Aug. 4, 2011

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