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)/

Interjection

ding dong

1. (onomatopoeia, colloquial, often childish) The sound 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, Carry On Nurse, Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors, →OCLC, retrieved 2017-11-10, spoken by Jack Bell (Leslie Phillips), 0:44:35 from the start:

     Ding dong, you're not wrong.

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
• Japanese: ピンポン (pin-pon)
• Kazakh: дың-дың (dyñ-dyñ)
• Polish: dzyń, bam (pl), bim-bam, bim-bam-bom
• Portuguese: tão balalão
• Russian: динь-дон (dinʹ-don)
• 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.

   My girlfriend's math teacher is a ding dong.

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

Anagrams

• gnodding