Bung Knife or Boung Knife, subs. (old).—Considerable uncertainty exists as to the nature or use of this implement. It has however been conjectured that as boung was an old cant word for a purse, that boung knife may therefore have been a knife kept in the purse or girdle, but concerning this nothing definite can be stated.
1592. Greene, Quip for Upstart Courtier (Hart. Misc., V., 407). One of them had on . . . a skeine like a bruer's boung-knife.
Bung Nipper or Boung Nipper, subs. (old).—A cut-purse; a sharper. [From bung (q.v.), an old canting term for a purse, + nipper, a thief, i.e., one who nips or steals.] In French, to nip a bung is couper une queue de rat, i.e., literally to cut off a rat's tail; but for synonyms, see Area-sneak and Thieves.
Bung Upwards, adv. phr. (old).—Said of a person lying on his face.
Bunk, subs. (common).—Hasty departure. Cf., Bunk, verb. [Of unknown derivation.]
c. 1870. Broadside Ballad, 'Peck's Bad Boy.'
Of course you're heard of Peck's bad boy, that dreadful Yankee lad, Who's bothered his poor parents so they've both gone raving mad,
He put a pound of old Scotch snuff into poor Buddha's trunk, The keeper tried to catch him, but the bad boy did a bunk.
Verb (common).—1. To be off; to decamp. For synonyms, see Amputate.
c. 1872. Broadside Ballad, 'Oh, we are a getting on.'
A stocking used a 'bank' to be, In the good old days of old, They didn't run such risks as we Do now of getting sold. No sooner does a bank go queer, You hear the same old strain, There's another bald-headed Manageer, Has bunked across to Spain.
1885. Referee, Feb. 16, p. 7, col. 3.
It was just such a parcel, bless him! he'd clasped to his noble breast, And bunked with out o' the building.
1887. Fun, 9 Nov., p. 201. 'What is a vanishing point?' said the school-*master to little Billy. 'The corner you bunks round when the "slops" after yer,' warbled the golden-haired child.
2. (Wellington College.)—To expel [from the school].
Bunker, subs. (common).—Beer. For synonyms, see Drinks and Swipes.
Bunkum, Buncombe, Buncome, subs. (American).—Talking merely for talking's sake; claptrap of all kinds; gas; tall talk. The employment of the word in its original sense of insincere political speaking or claptrap is ascribed to a member of Congress, Felix Walker, from Buncombe County, North Carolina, who explained that he was merely talking for buncombe, when his fellow members could not understand why he was making a speech. Judge Haliburton (Sam Slick) in explaining this word says that 'all over America, every place likes to hear of its member of Congress, and see their speeches; and, if they don't, they send a piece to the paper, inquirin' if their members died a natural death, or was skivered with a bowie-knife, for they hante seen his speeches lately, and his friends are anxious to know his fate. Our free and enlightened citizens don't approbate silent members; it don't seem to them
