bang away

verb

banged away; banging away; bangs away
Synonyms of bang awaynext

intransitive verb

1
: to work with determined effort
students banging away at their homework
2
: to attack persistently
police are going to keep banging away at you— Erle Stanley Gardner

Synonyms

See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of bang away in a Sentence

the design team has been banging away at that project for months
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
As several drummers banged away, Vázquez danced near a table and teammates clapped along to the music, including a spirited effort from Royce Lewis. — Dan Hayes, The Athletic, 16 Aug. 2024 One of the roadies came out to bang away on the piano, the notes more felt than heard, part of the noise. — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 29 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of bang away was in 1818

Rhymes for bang away

See All Rhymes for bang away

Browse Nearby Words

bang away
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bang away.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bang%20away. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

More Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

What do SCOTUS, POTUS, and FLOTUS mean?

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden

More Words with Remarkable Origins

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments
See More

Popular Features

See More

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

What do SCOTUS, POTUS, and FLOTUS mean?

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
dog-in-disguise
Rhyme Disguise Quiz Pair up words that look different but sound alike.
See All