Definition of "bung"

With the heavy seas trying to broach the boat they baled — and eventually found someone had forgotten to put the bung in.

1996, Dudley Pope, Life in Nelson's Navy

Andre pulled the bung from the top of a barrel, applied a glass tube with a suction device, and withdrew a pale, almost greenish liquid.

2008, Christine Carroll, The Senator's Daughter

It is almost a year since Luton Town's manager, Mike Newell, decided that whistle-blowing was no longer the preserve of referees and went public about illegal bungs.

2006 December 21, Leader, “Poorly tackled”, in the Guardian‎

You filthy bung, away.

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iv]

"Well, sir, I haven't got one," said the landlord, "or you should have it directly." […] "Could you oblige me with such a thing as a postage stamp?" "No," said the Bung; "don't keep 'em!"

1878, Fun, volumes 27-28, page 11

It has not yet been ascertained, which is the precise time when it becomes indispensable to bung the cider. The best, I believe, that can be done, is to seize the critical moment which precedes the formation of a pellicle on the surface...

1810, Agricultural Surveys: Worcester (1810)

Put the wine into a cask, cover up the bung-hole to keep out the dust, and when the hissing sound ceases, bung the hole closely, and leave the wine untouched for twelve months.

2006, A. G. Payne, Cassell's Shilling Cookery

Of course, the weird thing is that he found Marianne Faithfull at the same time and bunged it onto her, and it was a fucking hit, so already we're songwriters.

1996, Stanley Booth, quoting Keith Richards, Keith‎, St. Martin's Publishing Group

And to sustain us while we watch or read, we go to the freezer, take out a frozen pizza, bung it in the microwave and make do.

2004, Bob Ashley, Food and cultural studies

[T]he Chicken had been tapped, and bunged, and had received pepper, and had been made groggy, and had come up piping, and had endured a complication of similar strange inconveniences, until he had been gone into and finished.

1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848

The evening we reached the glacier Bowers[Henry Robertson Bowers] wrote: / […] My right eye has gone bung, and my left one is pretty dicky.

1922, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Karen Oslund (introduction), The Worst Journey in the World, 2004, page 365

‘Morning Mrs. Weissnicht. I′ve just heard as how your washing-machine′s gone bung.’

1953, Eric Linklater, A Year of Space, page 206

It′s the signal box, the main switchboard, that′s gone bung!

1997, Lin Van Hek, The Ballad of Siddy Church, page 219

Henry had said, “Half a million bloomin′ acres. A quarter of a million blanky sheep shorn a year, and they can′t keep on two blokes. It′s not because wer′e union, mate. It′s because we′re newchums. Something′s gone bung with this country.”

2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 9

Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton‎, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129