bung up

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

bung up (third-person singular simple present bungs up, present participle bunging up, simple past and past participle bunged up)

1. (British, New Zealand) To close an opening with a cork, cork like object or other improvised obstruction.

   He used a piece of putty to temporarily bung up the leaking gutter.

2. (obsolete, slang) To use up, as by bruising or overexertion; to exhaust or incapacitate for action.
   • 1612, Thomas Shelton (translator), he History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha (originally by Miguel de Cervantes)

     He had bunged up his mouth that he should not have spoken these three years.

   • 1930, Edna Ferber, Cimarron, page 20:

     Bunged up he was, plenty. A scar on his nose, healed up, but showing the marks of where human teeth had bit him in a fight, as neat and clear as a dentist’s signboard.