banjo

Etymology

From the pronunciation of African slaves, of Unknown ultimate origin. Possibly a corruption of bandore, alternatively from a West African language such as Mandinka banjul, or Kimbundu mbanza.

noun

1. A stringed musical instrument (chordophone), usually with a round body, a membrane-like soundboard and a fretted neck, played by plucking or strumming the strings.
   I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee...
   For quotations using this term, see Citations:banjo.
2. Any of various similar musical instruments, such as the Tuvan doshpuluur, with a membrane-like soundboard.
3. (slang) An object shaped like a banjo, especially a frying pan or a shovel.
4. (UK, Dagenham) A cul-de-sac with a round end.
   They all came back here — we cleared the room and put up tables for the reception — and then we went to another house on the banjo for a "knees-up". 1963, Peter Willmott, The Evolution of a Community, page 75
   Billy Tower lived in the far left house in the banjo that was Dagenham's version of cul de sacs. The trouble was you could be seen from the house and, in the time it took to walk along the Banjo, drugs could be flushed away. 2013, M. C. Dutton, The Godfathers of London
   The banjo format is not an unalloyed success these days: kids playing noisily on the quite narrow common green […] 2013, Martin Crookston, Garden Suburbs of Tomorrow?
5. (mining) A miner's round-nosed shovel.

verb

1. To play a banjo.
2. (transitive, slang, Britain) To beat, to knock down.
   Admitting the assault, the husband said that he had given her a 'banjoing' but that she had asked for it. 1989, Susan S. M. Edwards, Policing 'domestic' Violence: Women, the Law and the State, page 95
   Madar was turfed out on a final misdemeanour of banjoing one of his teammates in training before a big game 1998, "Fergie's world just gets Madar" (Sport), Sunday Mail, Jan 4, 1998
   "Me and other folk were just trying to get the boot in and some other guy banjoed [decked] him”. Jul 31 2007, “Return of Smeato, the extraordinary hero”, in Times Online
3. (transitive, slang, Britain, military) To shell or attack (a target).
   Riding reported that on the day Mayne had asked for DZ coordinates, their base had been banjoed by the Germans. 2008, Michael Asher, The Regiment: The Definitive Story of the SAS, page cxxx