zing
A short high-pitched humming sound, such as that made by a bullet or vibrating string.
Interjection
- A high pitched humming sound.
- Something inside of me started a symphony / Zing! Went the strings of my heart - 1934, “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”, James F. Hanley (music):
- Used to acknowledge a witty comeback, a zinger.
- Zing! The joke had rebounded back on the one who started it. "Ouch!" Mama Jane winced ruefully. We all dissolved in laughter at the good-natured repartee. - 2002, Chellie Campbell, The Wealthy Spirit, Sourcebooks,...
Origin
Of onomatopoeic origin.
Noun
- A short high-pitched humming sound, such as that made by a bullet or vibrating string.
- I heard a zing close to my head and looked up again. Five or six men were lined up on the deck above me with rifles shooting at the shark. - 1998 March 15, Edward E. Leslie, Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls, Mariner...
- A witty insult or derogatory remark.
- Zest or vitality.
- To accompany a meal, the fresh Italian lager Poretti is perfect; Erdinger Weisbier, a wheat beer from Germany, is full of zing; - 2006 May 25, Melinda Houston, “European Bier Cafe - Bar Reviews”, in The Age:
- Pleasant or exciting flavour of food.
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To move very quickly, especially while making a high-pitched hum.
- We are all a second or two older than an astronaut who has been zinging around the Earth at 18000 miles per hour, because of his or her greater speed and the lack of gravity. - 2000, Nick Nelson, The Golden Vortex,...
- When the caller identified herself as from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle my heart zinged. I heard the words we had yearned for since March: They had found a donor marrow, mismatched at one...
- To address a witty insult or comeback to.
- Goomba: Ouch that was cold! Paragoomba: “What, you’re too good for us? Come off it, sister! Spike Goomba: “Nobody zings us like that! Nobody! Let’s get ’em!” - 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of...