bangs

1. 1
   nounPhilippinesUScountable

   The front locks of hair that hang down over the forehead.

   The stylist trimmed her bangs so they sat just above her brows.

   He kept pushing his bangs aside because they tickled his forehead.

   Similarfringe

   Note

   An American and Philippine word that grew out of the verb bang in its sense of cutting hair or docking a tail squarely. Cut hair probably seemed to spring out with a bang. The word is almost always plural, as in her bangs are too long, even for one unbroken sweep of hair. The singular a bang survives only as an archaism, and British speakers say fringe.

2. 2
   nounUScountable

   A hairstyle that includes hair over the forehead, especially hair cut straight across.

   After years of long hair, she finally decided to get bangs.

   Blunt bangs reaching just above the eyebrows defined the look of that era.

   Similarfringe

   Note

   Here the word names the cut rather than the hair itself, which is why people get bangs or ask for them. The classic version is squared off straight across. That shape echoes the old verb sense of cutting a forelock or a horse's tail squarely, the origin behind the hair over the forehead.

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of bang.

   The fireworks display ended with a series of deafening bangs.

   A few sharp bangs on the door startled everyone in the room.

   Note

   An ordinary plural that covers every countable sense of the noun: a run of noises, a volley of blows, several explosions, and in American use a string of exclamation points, since the symbol ! is called a bang. The same spelling also names the hair over the forehead and a bacterial disease, so context decides: bangs on the door are heard, not trimmed.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of bang.

   She bangs the gavel to bring the meeting to order.

   The screen door bangs shut every time someone walks through.

   Note

   The present-tense verb form for he, she or it is spelled exactly like the plural noun, so only the grammar separates a door that bangs from the bangs of a door. Most uses are noisy and harmless: it bangs shut, she bangs the gavel. The verb also has vulgar slang senses for sex and for intravenous injection, so he bangs with a person as its object reads as crude.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   Brucellosis, an infectious disease caused by bacteria.

   Ranchers in the valley spent years working to eradicate bangs from their herds.

   A positive test for bangs once meant the entire herd faced quarantine.

   Similarbrucellosis

   Note

   A clipped name rather than a plural: Bang's disease lost its second word and its apostrophe, leaving a form that only looks like the plural of bang. It is a mass noun used without an article, so ranchers test a herd for bangs. It shares nothing but its spelling with the hair or the noise.

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