Meanings
- participlepastsimple past and past participle of bang up
- informalnot comparableSpending time in prison or jail.
My uncle has been banged up for ten years now; I haven't seen him in five.
Synonyms: behind bars, incarcerated, imprisoned, put away
- informalnot comparablePhysically injured or wounded.
“Well I can tell you why I didn’t. It wasn’t necessary, Mr. Finch. She was mighty banged up. Something sho‘ happened, it was obvious.”
1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC1 more example
"It does hurt, not just my ankle but all over. I'm banged up like hell. But I'm not, you know, hurt. Like needing an X Ray or the infirmary or whatever."
2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 164Synonyms: hurt, injured, crocked, fucked up, gimped, hurt, imbrued, injured
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveSpending time in prison or jail.
adjectivePhysically injured or wounded.
Translations
Spanish maltrecho
- maltrechohurt
Cite this entry
banged up. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/banged%20up
“banged up.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/banged%20up. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “banged up,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/banged%20up.
Source: banged up on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.