bludge meaning (slang): definition, etymology and quotations

bludge

noun

/blʌdʒ/

Etymology Back-formation from bludger.

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.2007, Anne Barry, Playing with Fire, page 136:

Australia, New Zealand, Slang Easy work, especially a subject at school that requires little effort.

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.1997, Wendy Morgan, Critical Literacy in the Classroom: The Art of the Possible, page 145:
‘Seriously, you′ve got sheep at school?’ I said. ‘Yeah, heaps of kids here do Ag. Reckon it′s a big bludge, like drama.’2011, Irini Savvides, Sky Legs:

verb

Etymology Back-formation from bludger.

Australia, Obsolete, Slang To live off the earnings of a prostitute.

Australia, New Zealand, Slang To not earn one's keep, to live off someone else or off welfare when one could be working.

Australia, New Zealand, Slang To avoid one's responsibilities; to leave it to others to perform duties that one is expected to perform.

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.1999, Tony Shillitoe, Joy Ride, page 64:
One of the mess orderlies had consistently bludged on the rest of us all day.2002, Donald Friend, edited by Anne Gray, The Diaries of Donald Friend, volume 1, page 343:

Australia, New Zealand, Slang To do nothing, to be idle, especially when there is work to be done.

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.”1967, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 3164:
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.1998, Marion Halligan, Rosanne Fitzgibbon, The gift of story: Three decades of UQP short stories, page 96:

1 more example

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

Australia, New Zealand, Slang To take some benefit and give nothing in return.

Can I bludge a cigarette off you?
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.1983, Max Harris, The Unknown Great Australian and other psychobiographical portraits, page 105:

1 more example

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