bang out

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

bang out (third-person singular simple present bangs out, present participle banging out, simple past and past participle banged out)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To do (something) quickly, in a slipshod, or unprofessional manner, especially performing or composing music or a piece of writing.

   I've got this paper due tomorrow, but I think I can bang it out in one night.

   The band were banging out a vaguely recognisable version of the Star Spangled Banner.

   • 2001 May 25, Caroline Sullivan, “Bubblegum punk from the Donnas”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     They bang out bubblegum punk that couldn't be more reductive if Joey Ramone himself were hovering over their shoulders with his Gabba Gabba Hey! sign.

   • 2019 February 24, Barbara Ellen, “Amy Winehouse could belt out a tune – her naff hologram can’t”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     Punters put up with all this for the thrill of seeing someone perform live – not for a ghoulish sanitised projection, soullessly banging out the hits.

2. (intransitive, aviation, slang) To eject.
   • 2010, Tony Doyle, Flying at the Edge, →ISBN, page 253:

     The pilot promptly banged out and the aircraft flew almost as far as the airfield, eventually crashing into a farmer's field.

3. (transitive, British, printing) To celebrate (a fellow printing or newspaper industry worker) to mark their completion of an apprenticeship or their retirement by (formerly) hitting metal furniture in the printing room or (more recently) hitting one's desk in the newsroom.
   • 2008 June 26, “Hill and Dryden off with a bang”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     As Hill left, his colleagues on the foreign desk started to bang him out – the traditional printers' farewell that involves thumping the desk as loudly as possible. According to reports the whole of the Telegraph's vast multimedia newsroom, said to be the largest in Europe, was shaking as staff banged out yet another colleague.

4. (transitive) To beat up (someone).

Usage notes

• (to do something quickly): The object may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.

Translations

to do something quickly

• French: bâcler (fr), traiter par dessous la jambe (fr), torcher (fr)
• German: zusammenschustern (de) (physical product), herauswürgen (de) (something immaterial yet concrete, e.g., song, speech), zusammenstöpseln, raushauen
• Spanish: chapucear (es)

Noun

bang out (plural bang outs)

1. (slang) Someone who works or studies seemingly way too much.

   Jamie finished the paper and did all the homework. He's such a bang out.

Further reading

• banging out on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Clipping of bang out of order

Adjective

bang out (not comparable)

1. (UK, slang) Completely unacceptable.

Anagrams

• gunboat