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, of a person) 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. (British, New Zealand, of debris) To block or obstruct (an opening or passage).

   The fallen leaves were bunging up the drain.

   By dose is bunged up with snot!

3. (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.