ding

The high-pitched resonant sound of a bell.

Noun informal

  1. Very minor damage caused by being struck; a small dent or chip.
    • Mike hit the bottom and picked up a little ding on his head. - 1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer:
    • If you surf regularly, then you're going to ding your board. Here's a rough guide on how to repair them... If the ding is on the rail, run tape across the ding conforming to the rail curve, leaving a gap to pour in...
  2. A rejection.
    • I just got my first ding letter.

Origin

From Middle English dingen, dyngen (strong verb), from Old English *dingan (“to ding”), from Proto-West Germanic *dingwan, from Proto-Germanic *dingwaną (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“to beat, push”). Related to Old English denġan, denċġan (“to ding, knock, beat, strike”, weak verb) and Old Norse dengja (“to hammer”, weak verb); both from Proto-Germanic *dangijaną (“to beat, hammer, peen”), causative of *dingwaną. Cognate with Icelandic dengja (“to hammer”), Swedish dänga (“to bang, beat”), Danish dænge (“to bang, beat”), German tengeln, dengeln (“to peen”).

Forms

dings

Noun Entry 2

  1. The high-pitched resonant sound of a bell.
  2. The act of levelling up.

Origin

Onomatopoeic. Compare ding-dong,

Forms

dings

Derived

dingless

Noun Entry 3

  1. An ancient Chinese vessel with legs and a lid.

Origin

Romanized from Mandarin 鼎 (dǐng).

Forms

dings ding ting

Noun Hong Kong

  1. An indigenous inhabitant of the New Territories entitled to the building a village house under the Small House Policy.

Origin

From Cantonese 丁 (ding¹).

Forms

dings

Derived

ding right

Noun Australia, Western

  1. an Italian person, specifically an Italian Australian

Forms

dings

Verb Entry 6

  1. To hit or strike.
  2. To dash; to throw violently.
    • to ding the book a coit's distance from him - 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:
    • The butcher's axe (like great Alcides' bat) / Dings deadly downe ten thousand thousand flat. - 1630, Taylor's Works:
  3. To inflict minor damage upon, especially by hitting or striking.
    • If you surf regularly, then you're going to ding your board. - 2007 September, “Ding Repairs”, BBC Wales, archived on 5 October 2014
  4. To fire or reject.
    • His top school dinged him last week.
  5. To deduct, as points, from (somebody), in the manner of a penalty; to penalize.
    • My bank dinged me three bucks for using their competitor's ATM.
    • […] [E]mployees don't feel like they're going to get dinged on performance reviews because they had the same goals as a guy who had been there all 12 months with no leave. - 2015 August 7, Ron Lieber, “Bringing...
  6. To mishit (a golf ball).
  7. To fall heavily and continually, with great force.
    • The night turn'd dark an' dang on rain, […] - 1821, William Liddle (of Edinburgh.), Poems on different occasions, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, page 226:
    • An awfu' show'r o' sna' and drift / As ever dang down frae the lift; / Right wild an' monstrous Boreas roar'd. - 1832, John Burness, Thrummy Cap, a Tale [in Verse]; and The Brownie O' Fearnden, a Ballad, page 4:
    • It's dingin' on, isn't? - 1876, Alec Forbes, MacDonald, page 193:

Forms

dings dinging dinged dang dung

Related

dingbat

Derived

ding up

Verb Entry 7

  1. To make a high-pitched resonant sound like a bell.
    • The fretful tinkling of the convent bell evermore dinging among the mountain echoes. - 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.:...
    • These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long. - 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […],...
  2. To keep repeating; impress by reiteration, with reference to the monotonous striking of a bell.
    • If I'm to have any good, let it come of itself; not keep dinging it, dinging it into one so. - 1884, Oswald Crawfurd, English comic dramatists:
  3. To level up.

Forms

dings dinging dinged

Related

bud-bud-ding-ding ding-a-ling ding ding ding, ding, ding, we have a winner ding dong ding dong cart ding-dong ditch ding-dong theory dingthrift ring-a-ding

Derived

dinger