ding dong

See also: dingdong, and ding-dong

English

Sound of a doorbell.

Etymology

See ding-dong

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪŋ(ɡ)ˈdɒŋ(ɡ)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Interjection

ding dong

1. (onomatopoeia, colloquial, often childish) The sound made by a bell; especially, that made by a doorbell.

   Ding dong bell, pussy's in the well! / Who put her in? Little Johnny Thin. / Who pulled her out? Little Tommy Stout. (Traditional English nursery rhyme)

2. (colloquial) A general exclamation of surprise or approval.

   — Here's a photo of my new girlfriend. — Ding dong!

   • 1959, Norman Hudis, 0:44:35 from the start, in Carry On Nurse (motion picture), spoken by Jack Bell (Leslie Phillips), Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors, →OCLC, retrieved 2017-11-10:

     Ding dong, you're not wrong.

Related terms

• ding, ding, ding, we have a winner

 

Translations

onomatopoeia for the sound of a doorbell

Chinese: Mandarin: 丁冬 (zh) (dīngdōng), 丁当 (zh) (dīngdāng), 丁當／丁当 (zh) (dīngdāng) Czech: crrr, crr crr Finnish: pim pom French: drelin-drelin (fr), dring-dring (fr) Hungarian: bim-bam (hu) Japanese: ピンポン (ja) (pin-pon) Kazakh: дың-дың (dyñ-dyñ) Polish: dzyń (pl), bam (pl), bim-bam, bim-bam-bom Portuguese: tão balalão Russian: динь-дон (dinʹ-don) Swedish: ding dång Ukrainian: дзень-дзе́нь (dzenʹ-dzénʹ), дзеле́нь-дзень (dzelénʹ-dzenʹ), дзень-дзеле́нь (dzenʹ-dzelénʹ), дзінь-дзі́нь (dzinʹ-dzínʹ) Vietnamese: bính bong, bính boong

Noun

ding dong (plural ding dongs)

1. (colloquial, derogatory) Alternative form of ding-dong; an idiot.

   Synonyms: ding-a-ling; see also Thesaurus:idiot

   My girlfriend's math teacher is a ding dong.

2. (colloquial, often humorous, euphemistic) Alternative form of ding-dong; a penis.

   Synonyms: ding-a-ling, schlong; see also Thesaurus:penis

Anagrams

• Dongding, gnodding