dingus

English

Alternative forms

• dinges

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch dinges, ding (“thing”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪŋɡəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

dingus (plural dinguses)

1. (informal, Canada, US) A gadget, device, or object whose name is either unknown, forgotten, or omitted for the purpose of humor; a thingamajig.
   • 1879, George Wilbur Peck, Peck's Fun, Being Extracts from the "La Crosse Sun," and "Peck's Sun," Milwaukee:

     "If anybody should come in, and catch you with your breeches, as it were, down on the floor, all you have to do is to drink the water, wrap the rubber dingus around you, and tell them to “lay on Macduff.”

   • 1921 December 31, “WLK”, in David J. Bodenhamer and Robert G[raham] Barrows, with the assistance of David G[ordon] Vanderstel, editors, The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Bloominton, Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, published 1994, →ISBN, page 1399, column 2:

     WLK. First radio station. On December 31, 1921, local engineer Francis F. Hamilton's radio station, 9ZJ, signed on with an address from Mayor Samuel (Lew) Shank. Broadcasting from Hamilton's garage at 2011 North Alabama Street, Shank made the city's first radio blooper: "Hamilton, do you mean to tell me that people can actually hear me over that damn' dingus?"

   • 1929, Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest:

     "He took the this-is-unheard-of-but-not-really-serious-of-course attitude of a street fakir whose mechanical dingus flops during a demonstration."

   • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin 2010, p. 29:

     I wet the rod and measured the stuff into the top and by that time the water was steaming. I filled the lower half of the dingus and set it on the flame.

   • 1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, After You with the Pistol, Penguin 2001, p. 241:

     ‘Say, what’s that dingus you Britishers wear when you’re playing cricket?’

2. (informal, Canada, US) A fool or incompetent person.

   Synonym: doofus

   I just lost my keys again. Now I feel like a dingus.

3. (slang, vulgar) penis

   Synonym: dink

   • 1970, Don Tracy, The Last Boat Out of Cincinnati, Trident Press (1970), →ISBN, page 74:

     "He got mad at me because his dingus wouldn’t come up for him — too drunk, I guess. […]

   • 2015, Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight, spoken by Mayor Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson):

     And Charles Chester Smithers sucked on that warm black dingus for as long as he could.

   • 2018, Tom Gammill and Max Pross, 3 Scenes Plus a Tag From a Marriage, spoken by Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright):

     How come you can say dink when you're talking about your jobs but I can't say dink when I'm talking about my dingus?

Anagrams

• gnudis, gundis, undigs