Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

banjax en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈbæn.d͡ʒæks/ (UK, US)
  • (US) audio
  • /bænˈd͡ʒæks/ (UK, US)

Etymology

Unknown, perhaps originally Dublin slang. According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, may be a euphemism for bollocks.

Meanings

  1. (Ireland, informal) A mess or undesirable situation made as a result of incompetence.
    • I'm tellin' you the scholar, Bentham, made a banjax o' th' Will. 1922, Seán O'Casey, Juno and the Paycock:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
banjack alternative lexicographic
bandjax alternative lexicographic
banjaxes Number=Plur lexicographic

banjax en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • /ˈbæn.d͡ʒæks/ (UK, US)
  • (US) audio
  • /bænˈd͡ʒæks/ (UK, US)

Etymology

Unknown, perhaps originally Dublin slang. According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, may be a euphemism for bollocks.

Meanings

  1. (UK, slang) To ruin or destroy.
    • Emma had suggested that you hide, said your presence might banjax her position. 1970, Edna O'Brien, A Pagan Place, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2001, page 91:
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:banjax.
    • Indeed, it seemed that the army was hopelessly banjaxed. 1928, Eimar O'Duffy, The Spacious Adventures of the Man in the Street, Macmillan, page 370:
    • Fraser was looking at the flat, wet countryside and thinking about the French policeman who had banjaxed him with the truncheon. 2006, Craig Ferguson, Between the Bridge and the River, Chronicle Books, page 252:
    • I hoofed his backside till he went down all of a heap. That banjaxed his little game. You should have heard his hullabulloo. 1922, Darrell Figgis, The House of Success, The Gael Co-operative Publishing Society, Ltd., page 146:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
banjaxed Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
banjaxed Tense=Past lexicographic
banjack alternative lexicographic
bandjax alternative lexicographic
banjaxes Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
banjaxing Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Translations (7)

de ruinieren (To ruin or destroy) · tpi bagarapim (To ruin or destroy) · de zerstören (To ruin or destroy) · it rovinare (To ruin or destroy) · it distruggere (To ruin or destroy) · fr ruiner (To ruin or destroy) · fr détruire (To ruin or destroy)