Dictionary

bungstarter en · NOUN

Etymology

From bung + starter.

Meanings

1. A tool for opening barrels by removing the bung.
   • But he had not yet learned to estimate these cool, languid, Southwestern knights of the bungstarter, who had the manners of an Earl of Pawtucket, ... 1914, O. Henry, “Doubleday, Page & company, for Review of reviews co”, in Heart of the West, page 133:
   • That's where the barkeeper took a bungstarter and killed a man who was shooting wild. 1941, Clark Barnaby Firestone, Flowing South, National Travel Club, page 138:
   • "Pat, let me have that keg," and the schoolteacher proceeded to hammer around the bung, in the way of the orthodox bungstarter. 1943, Ernest Thompson Seton, “The Seton village press”, in The Preacher of Cedar Mountain, page 134:
   • When he came around the end of the bar he laid down the pistol and he was carrying a bungstarter in one hand. 1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:
   • The Portuguese equivalent of bungstarter whiffed Angus Jones by an eyelash. 1929, John Russell, Color of the East, W. W. Norton, page 229:

Forms