Scunge

In two mad days Scully painted out the whole interior in lime wash, and the place suddenly seemed brighter, bigger, cleaner, and so strangely wholesome that it made him realize how foul it had been before, what scunge he'd really been dealing with day and night.

Every saucepan he owned was piled there, caked with unidentifiable scunge.

We asked questions like, “Do you think we can take a blowtorch to burn that green scunge out of the refrigerator without wrecking the insulation?”

Fitzroy was the across-the-river equivalent of St Kilda. Another ragged, working-class suburb that had become bohemian and then been discovered and slicked up. There was plenty of scunge left, however; in the back streets the smell of dope wafted from the houses.

“You four scunges need to clean yourselves up,″ Jarrad announced — ironic given his own personal hygiene, Jake thought, which was less than impeccable.

The press officer was glad to get me onto the helicopter back to the airbase, as he obviously thought I must be a bit of a scunge asking political questions, when it was my job to report on how well the war was going and how the North was being held.

“I was scunged. ... I hated myself, hated everything, felt useless and worthless, had no friends, no love, no career, no education, no parents and no tomorrows. It all added up to nothing.”

1846, author not visible, The Disruption: A Scottish Tale of Recent Times, R. M. Walker (printer), Edinburgh, page 341, Neither will ye scunge after the gentry like M′Quirkie, and keep your creed in your hand ready to swap it for ony ither that may happen to be mair profitable.