1842. Lever, Jack Hinton, ch. vii. His hat set jauntily on one side, his spotted neckcloth knotted in bang-up mode.
1844. Quarterly Review, XXIV., 368. We could not resist giving a specimen of John Thorpe . . . altogether the best portrait of a species which, though almost extinct, cannot yet be quite classed among the Palœotheria, the bang-up Oxonian.
1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, vol. I., ch. xxxiv. There appeared on the cliff in a tax cart, drawn by a bang-up pony . . . his friends, the Sutbury Pet and the Rottingdean Fibber.
Subs.—Also used substantively as in the following example; that which is quite right; the 'thing'; the 'go.'
1882. Punch, LXXXII., 185, 1. Modern Life in London, or Tom and Jerry back again. The trio turned into the Arcade, and saw a number of gay sparks and fair ones promenading. 'Twas a curious sight, a glimpse of Life in London, one of its primest features, and yet, as the Corinthian remarked to his Coz, these people seemed like the 'ghosts of a former generation.' 'These then are the dandies, the fops, the goes and the bang-ups, these the Corinthians of to-day,' was also Tom's exclamation to young Bob, who said, 'I don't know about being Corinthians, but some of these fellows are very 'good form,' and as to being bang-up, a good many poor old chappies are deuced hard-up.'
Verb tr.—To make smart; produce in first-rate style.
1821. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, Tour iii., c. v. Pat to his neckcloth gave an air In style, and á la militaire; His pocket too a kerchief bore With scented water sprinkled o'er; Thus banged-up, sweeten'd, and clean shav'd, The sage the dinner-table braved.
Bangy, subs. (Winchester College).—'Brown'
sugar. From Bangalore,
a once coarse-growing
sugar country.
Adj.—Colour of brown sugar; e.g., bangy bags, brown trousers. These were also called bangies. So universally was the term bangy used to designate a brownish hue, that a gate of that colour at Winchester College, formerly leading from Grass Court into Sick House Meads, was called the Bangy Gate. The name is now often used for the gate by Racquet Court, into Kingsgate Street.
Banian-Days or Banyan-Days, subs.
(nautical).—Those days in which
sailors have no flesh meat. Probably
derived from the practice
of the Banians, a caste of Hindoos,
traders or merchants, who
entirely abstained from all animal
food.
1690. Ovington, in Yules' Anglo-Indian Glossary. Of kitcheney (butter, rice, and dai) the European sailors feed in these parts, and are forced at such times to a Pagan abstinence from flesh, which creates in them an utter detestation to those banian-days as they call them.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxv. They told me that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the ship's company had no allowance of meat, and that these meagre days were called banyan-days, the reason of which they did not know; but I have since learned they take their denomination from a sect of devotees in some parts of the East Indies, who never taste flesh.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Christ's Hospital). We had three banyan to four meat days in the week.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. lxiii. If he might be so bold as to carry on the Eastern metaphor, he would say, knowing the excellence of the Colonel's claret and the splendour of his hospitality, that he would prefer a cocoanut day at the Colonel's to a banyan-day anywhere else.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. [From Strolling Players' bill.] Wooldridge's Theatre. Wanted 700 men, to man that splendid first-class, Frigate, 'The Theatre,' commanded by A. J. Wooldridge, now lying at her moorings, in Cheapside. Mr. Wooldridge, with all due respects to his brother Tars, hopes they will lend a hand to man his Vessel. He cannot
