slam-bang

See also: slambang

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

slam-bang (not comparable)

1. (onomatopoeia) Noisy, raucous.
   • 1959, Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King, Penguin Classics, published 1996, →ISBN, page 173:

     At a signal from Horko's box there was an all-out, slam-bang, grand salute of the guns and with it a pounding of the deep liquid bass drums.

   • 2001, V. C. Andrews, Cinnamon, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 188:

     Their arguments weren't pleasant to hear or to watch, but they weren't yet having the all-out, slam-bang quarrels they would have when I was older.

   • 2003, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Christmas, Present, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 2:

     Fifteen years of marriage in full would cry out for a slam-bang celebration.

2. Violent, forceful
   • 1932, P. G. Wodehouse, Monkey Business:

     "If you had led the rough, tough, slam-bang, every-man-for-himself life I have, you wouldn't be frightened of gorillas...."

   • 2000, Linda Parent Lesher, The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader's Guide, McFarland & Company,, →ISBN, page 99:

     Temporary Agency begins with a tale of demonic possession and adolescent crushes and ends with a slam-bang, all-out global confrontation between the forces of good and evil.

   • 2004, Lindsey Davis, Scandal Takes a Holiday, Mysterious Press, →ISBN, page 4:

     The boy seemed streetwise yet clearly unaware that this was an officer whose slam-bang interrogation methods were a legend.

   • 2007, John Dunning, The Bookwoman's Last Fling: A Cliff Janeway Novel, Simon and Schuster,, →ISBN, page 2:

     The waiter took my order, a slam-bang something with eggs and pancakes: enough cholesterol to power the whole state of Idaho.

3. Impressive, exciting.
   • 1961, Joseph Heller, chapter 2, in Catch-22:

     "I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman."

   • 2004 March 18–24, Jack Harvey (pseudonym), "Once Again, Oscar Is King Of The Rings", in The Onion, available in Embedded in America, →ISBN, page 114,

     After this slam-bang production, the next is sure to be a huge letdown.

   • 2005, John Reed, The Whole, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 43:

     An eentsy-weentsy office with a slam-bang T1 connection that she couldn't figure out how to hook up to her slam-bang computer that she couldn't figure out how to plug in.

Adverb

slam-bang (not comparable)

1. Shot or hit with a noise
   • 19th cent., Robert Montgomery Bird, Nick of the Woods, 1967 Rowman & Littlefield edition, →ISBN, page 48,

     Well! as soon as I jumped out of his way, bang went his piece, and bang went another, let fly by an Injun;—down went the Major, shot right through the hips, slam-bang.

Noun

slam-bang (plural slam-bangs)

1. (onomatopoeia) Noisy activity.
   • 2005, Monica Wood, Any Bitter Thing: A Novel, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 71:

     From far down the hall came the staccato notes of a new term, the slam-bang of teachers flinging open cabinets, filling trash cans, stapling lists to bulletin boards, dragging desks into optimistic configurations.

   • 1985, Paul Theroux, "Introduction", to, Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Penguin Classics, →ISBN, page 13,

     But James in describing the slam-bang of her upbringing has given us every reason for her turning out crazy, vengeful or anti-social.

Verb

slam-bang (third-person singular simple present slam-bangs, present participle slam-banging, simple past and past participle slam-banged)

1. To beat noisily.
   • 1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     He was forever slam-banging the microphone stand & twisting the cord around himself.