Shebang definition

shə-băng

Shebang is slang for a situation, or a set of facts or things.

An example of shebang is someone paying for the entire check for a large group dinner; paying for the whole shebang.

noun

A situation, organization, contrivance, or set of facts or things.

Organized and ran the whole shebang.

noun

A shack or hut.

noun

Any matter of present concern; thing; or business.

noun

(archaic) A lean-to or temporary shelter.

noun

(informal) An affair, business, contrivance, thing, etc.

noun

(computing) The character string "#!" used at the beginning of a computer file to indicate which interpreter can process the commands in the file, chiefly used in Unix and related operating systems.

noun

Other Word Forms

Singular:

shebang

Plural:

shebangs

Origin unknown

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
The usage as “temporary shelter" perhaps from shebeen (“cabin where unlicensed liquor is sold and drunk"), pre-1800, chiefly in Ireland and Scotland, from Irish seibin (“small mug"), diminutive of seibe (“mug, bottle, liquid measure")

From Wiktionary
First seen in 1862 meaning a “temporary shelter". For instance in the US Civil War (1860-65), the small self-constructed shelters made by Union soldiers in the Confederate Prisoner-of-War camp at Andersonsville, south of Atlanta, Georgia, were known as "Shebangs".

From Wiktionary
Modern sense "the whole shebang", origin unknown but meaning "all of the parts" of what is being referred to. Take our Word]</ref>

From Wiktionary
hash +"Ž bang or sharp +"Ž bang, after Etymology 1.

From Wiktionary