English

Noun

bludge ‎(uncountable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) The act of bludging.
   • 2007, Anne Barry, Playing with Fire, page 136,

     A friend offered him a job working as a handyman in his carpet factory – a Mr Fix-it. Effectively off the bludge and back on track.

2. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Easy work.
   • 1997, Wendy Morgan, Critical Literacy in the Classroom: The Art of the Possible, page 145,

     Oh, my name is Gecko and I just thought the whole unit was a bludge, sometimes it got really boring. But like I said I could just fall asleep and let my group members do all the work. And still almost pass.

   • 2011, Irini Savvides, Sky Legs, unnumbered page,

     ‘Seriously, you′ve got sheep at school?’ I said.

     ‘Yeah, heaps of kids here do Ag. Reckon it′s a big bludge, like drama.’

Synonyms

• (easy work): doddle

Verb

bludge ‎(third-person singular simple present bludges, present participle bludging, simple past and past participle bludged)

1. (Australia, obsolete, slang) To live off the earnings of a prostitute.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) To not earn one's keep, to live off someone else or off welfare when one could be working.
3. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) To avoid one's responsibilities; to leave it to others to perform duties that one is expected to perform.
   • 1999, Tony Shillitoe, Joy Ride, page 64,

     The second last Thursday in first term of Year Nine, Jason and I bludged school for the first time together. It wasn't Jason's first time. He bludged school regularly, but I never used to miss days unless I was really sick.

   • 2002, Donald Friend, Anne Gray (editor), The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 1, page 343,

     One of the mess orderlies had consistently bludged on the rest of us all day.

4. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) To do nothing, to be idle, especially when there is work to be done.
   • 1967, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 3164,

     We had the member for Piako saying as recently as last year, when dealing with social security benefits and increases, “I feel myself that when we have able-bodied men and women who would bludge and draw the pension, there is something wrong.”

   • 1998, Marion Halligan, Rosanne Fitzgibbon, The gift of story: Three decades of UQP short stories, page 96,

     Now, you get back out there and you bludge! I don't want to see anyone working, OK? I don't want to see any pick-axes, any hammers, or nothing.

   • 2004, John Smyth, Robert Hattam, et al., ‘Dropping Out,’ Drifting Off, Being Excluded: Becoming Somebody Without School, page 53,

     I mean, school′s like a job. If you work for it you get your grades; if you work your hours you get your money. But if you bludge, you don't get money; if you bludge you don't get any grades. That's something that I didn't realize when I was young.

5. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) To take some benefit and give nothing in return.

   Can I bludge a cigarette off you?

   • 1983, Max Harris, The Unknown Great Australian and other psychobiographical portraits, page 105,

     Gabriel was a classic bludger. He was a drop-out in the very modern sense of the word. The Rossettis were anything but well-heeled. Solid old brother William kept the show on the road. Gabriel bludged on the family. He bludged on his mates.

   • 2004, Gillian Cowlishaw, Blackfellas, Whitefellas, and the Hidden Injuries of Race, page 135,

     Now an adult with his own family, this man has become conscious of different norms among his children's white friends, and that whites often see sharing as bludging.

Synonyms

• (live off someone else): freeload, sponge
• (avoid one's responsibilities): shirk
• (be idle, do nothing): idle, laze, lounge
• (take without giving back): cadge, scrounge

Translations

Related terms

• bludger

Anagrams

• bugled
• bulged