c1774 C. Keith Farmer's Ha' As he was working lang and strang, And fallowin wi' pith and bang.

1870 J. W. Kaye Hist. Sepoy War II. vi. iv. 554 An unwonted amount of confidence and bang.

1879 G. Meredith Egoist xxix Every crack and bang in a boy's vocabulary.

1906 Westm. Gaz. 20 Jan. 2/1 When the recipient of a letter has to..go in for a comparative analysis of the different letters..he is justified in using bang words.

1931 D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) vi. 129 He seems to be getting a great bang out of the doings.

1951 J. D. Salinger Catcher in Rye iv. 37 I hate the movies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them.

1937 in E. Partridge Dict. Slang

1965 A. Prior Interrogators xii. 239 Isn't it amazing..what a quick bang does for old Lance.

1968 J. Updike Couples i. 35 I bet she even gives him a bang now and then.

1953 S. Alsop in N.Y. Herald Tribune 21 Dec. 18/6 They believe that the ‘more bang for a buck’ theory is an excuse for the cutbacks, rather than a real reason, and that the ‘buck’ came first by an easy margin, with the ‘bang’ a poor second.

1976 National Observer (U.S.) 30 Oct. 2/4 The labor-backed Health Security Act provides more bang for the buck—more new services for each dollar of added cost.

1990 Music Trades (Nexis) 137 103 Digitals [i.e. digital pianos] are sold on slick engineering, amazing ‘bang for the buck’, and trouble free operation.

2004 Independent 28 Aug. 3/4 The tourists don't want to stay there because they can get more bang for their buck at a revamped chain hotel.

1878 F. M. A. Roe Army Lett. (1909) 186 It had a heavy bang of fiery red hair.

1880 W. D. Howells Undiscovered Country viii. 113 His hair cut in front like a young lady's bang.

1936 M. H. Bradley Five-minute Girl ii. 23 The straight dark hair, with its heavy bang across her childish forehead.

1880 Evening Stand. 3 Apr. 4/4 The present style of banged girl.

1897 Westm. Gaz. 17 May 10/1 The desirability of avoiding any unnecessary banging of saxpences.

1865 E. Waugh Barrel Org. 29 Owd Pudge, th' bang-beggar, coom runnin' into th' pew.

1639 J. Clarke Paroemiologia 102 A notable bang-pitcher, Silenus alter.

1933 E. A. Robertson Ordinary Families ix. 199 Dru, that devilish sailor and bang-about good sort!

1960 V. Gielgud To Bed at Noon iii. ix. 222 She keeps the wild-bull bang-about side of Rupert in hand.

1737 H. Bracken Farriery Improved xliv. 588 As young Horses generally brush thro' rather than clear their Leaps, they are apt to bang their Legs against Stubs, &c.

1789 Prompter 6 Nov. 44 Mr. Lewis..vehemently bangs his hat upon the floor.

1857 G. Borrow Romany Rye II. xiii. 193 ‘This is slow work,’ said Jack, banging down a guinea on the table.

1887 Amateur Mech. 7 286/3 Banging the stick on the bottom of the stewpan.

1929 E. Bowen Last September xiii. 160 Laurence listened, paralysed with indignation, then reached out and banged a chair on the floor.

1955 O. Manning Doves of Venus i. 5 A door-knocker was being furiously banged against a door.

1985 J. Winterson Oranges are not Only Fruit ii. 37 She banged the kettle on to the gas ring.

2011 Leader-Post (Regina, Sask.) (Nexis) 27 Oct. aa4 The old-school discipliner who bangs his hands on his desk in anger.

1828 London Lit. Gaz. 18 Oct. 661/2 ‘A thousand devils!’ said Mr. Ferdinand Fitzroy, banging out of the room.

1894 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Sept. 1193 This made Polly still more angry, and she banged about the dairy.

1956 C. Beaton Diary in Self Portrait with Friends (1979) xxi. 303 I banged out of the apartment.

1989 E. Dunlop Valley of Deer v. 19 Jenny expressed outrage, and banged about a bit, but she cooked the supper.

1999 S. Johnson in S. Johnson & S. Ruszczynski Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Independent Trad. v. 105 Joanne slammed the consulting-room door..and then crashed and banged around loudly in the hall.

2003 L. L. Miller Shotgun Bride xiv. 88 Kade started to protest, saw the sense in Boylen's words, and banged out of the office.

1820 G. Colman X Y Z i. ii. 20 Our company is nearly made up; but still I am in great want of a woman... Somebody that can walk well through the heavy cast of Comedy, troll decently as a Tragedy Queen, and bawl and bang away in a fat fubsey woman in a Farce.

1889 ‘M. Twain’ Connecticut Yankee xxxvi. 468 Here was proof that Clarence was still alive and banging away [as a reporter].

1909 M. R. Rinehart When Man Marries ii. 20 We all met down-stairs in the living-room, quite informally, and Dallas was banging away at the pianola.

1967 Listener 30 Nov. 731/2 Everybody banging away at that final aspirational aria.

1991 G. Josipovici Big Glass (BNC) 47 Genius is..poor old Sartre banging away at his trilogy.

1998 Dirt Jan. 22/2 After three years of banging away, I managed to arrange an interview with Tomac in 1994.

1979 Economist 6 Oct. 31/1 Mr. Patrick Jenkin—Social Services... In cabinet tries hard but is inclined to bang on a bit.

1983 Times 1 Dec. 13/6 The dispossessed Stuarts were always banging on about their bad luck.

1993 Guardian 23 Oct. (Skiing Suppl.) 3/2 Then you have to stand around for hours afterwards, smiling vaguely as people bang on about perfect S-turns.

2000 J. Goodwin Danny Boy v. 106 The crumbling walls were pasted with flyers for toss-awful local bands and various posters defending the right to party, asking for the legalization of cannabis and banging on about single mothers and the SWP.

1950 P. Tempest Lag's Lexicon 9 Banged up,..‘locked up’ or ‘locked in a cell’.

1966 New Society 31 Mar. 22/2 Some examples of cant words and phrases peculiar to prison inmates and ex-inmates usually familiar only to a narrow section of the community;..getting banged up in a peter (being locked in a prison cell).

1978 Drive Jan. 83/1 In one remand prison..the more disturbed men have to stay ‘banged up’ in their cells for 20 hours a day because there aren't enough warders to cope with them.

1985 J. Sullivan Only Fools & Horses (1999) I. 4th Ser. Episode 4. 228/1 [They] had a bit of a ruck last weekend and they're all banged up on remand!

1990 Daily Mirror 3 Feb. 7 A bloody gorilla looks like Marilyn Monroe when you've been banged up for 15 years.

2001 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 11 Aug. 13 At home, jockeys..are banged up in a dormitory above the weighing room for 24 hours before a race.

1882 Cent. Mag. 25 192 He was bareheaded, his hair banged even with his eyebrows in front.

1883 Harper's Mag. Mar. 492/2 They wear their..hair ‘banged’ low over their foreheads.