slap-bang, adv., a., and n.
Also slap bang.
[f. slap adv. + bang v. 8.]
A. adv. With, or as with, a slap and a bang; without delay, immediately; without due consideration or regard to the consequences. Also of position: directly or precisely (in the centre); completely, absolutely. Cf. bang adv. a.
| 1785 [see B. 1 a]. 1829 Brockett N.C. Gloss. (ed. 2), Slap-bang, violently, headlong—slap-dash. 1833 T. Hook Parson's Dau. i. vii, After fooling a man like a child in leading⁓strings for half a year, to let him go slap-bang, as I call it, in a minute, is an infernal shame. 1885 Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines (1889) 34 Over they went slap bang; whether they were China or woolen goods they met with the same treatment. 1963 A. Smith Throw out Two Hands xiv. 143 That gas was contentedly holding over three-quarters of a ton 1,500 feet above a lake and slap bang in the middle of the sky. |
B. adj.
† 1. a. slap-bang shop, an eating-house or cook-shop (see quot. 1785). Obs.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Slap-bang shop, a petty cook's shop where there is no credit given, but what is had must be paid down with the ready slap-bang, i.e. immediately. This is a common appellation for a night cellar frequented by thieves, and sometimes for a stage coach or caravan. 1823 Spirit Publ. Jrnls. 83 So I vauks myself to a slap-bang shop, for half a pound o' beef. 1838 New Monthly Mag. LIV. 214 Cow-heel or hot alamode from the slap-bang shop. |
† b. slap-bang coach (cf. prec., quot. 1785). Obs.
| 1797 M. Robinson Walsingham IV. 9, I invented the slap-bang coaches, and sported the tandem. |
2. Marked or characterized by carelessness, heedlessness, or haste.
| 1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 53 Still I dare this slap bang assertion dispute. 1873 Routledge's Yng. Gentl. Mag. Apr. 283/1 A bold ‘slap-bang’ method. 1878 F. A. Kemble Rec. Girlhood I. 98 The careless, slap-bang style in which overtures were performed. |
3. = slap-up a. 1.
| 1866 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 209 We don't intend to send you out in the tip-top, slap-bang, gentleman's-son style at first. |
C. n.
1. A slap-bang shop.
| 1836–7 Dickens Sk. Boz (1837) III. 36 They..dined at the same slap-bang every day, and revelled in each other's company every night. 1860 Mayhew Upper Rhine iii. 106 Refreshments served with no more style than at what we term a ‘slap-bang’. 1865 Athenæum No. 1950. 341/1 Cook⁓shops, or ‘slap-bangs’, as street-boys call such odorous places. |
2. Some kind of liquor.
| 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 77 What shall I call for? glass of the Mowbray slap-bang? No better; the receipt has been in our family these fifty years. |