dingy

English

Etymology 1

From English dialectal (Kentish) dingy (“dirty”), of unknown origin, though probably from Middle English *dingy, dungy, from Old English *dyncgiġ (“covered with dung, dirty”), an umlaut form of duncge, dung (“dung”), equivalent to dung +‎ -y, hence a doublet of dungy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪn.d͡ʒi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndʒi

Adjective

dingy (comparative dingier, superlative dingiest)

1. Dark, dull.

   Synonyms: drab, gloomy, dreary, dismal; see also Thesaurus:dim

   Antonym: bright

   • 1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 713:

     The station has been refurbished both at ground level and below ground, where the wide, fluorescently lit platforms are an almost unrecognisable metamorphosis of the dingy, reeking Low Level of old.

2. Shabby, squalid, uncared-for.

   Synonyms: grimy, dirty

   Antonym: pristine

   • 1853 Christmas, [George Augustus Sala], “Over the Way’s Story”, in Charles Dickens, editor, Another Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire. Being the Extra Christmas Number of Household Words. […], London, page 15, column 2:

     He led her through dingy wareroom after wareroom, counting-house after counting-house, where the clerks all were silent and subdued. He led her at last into a dingy sanctum, dimly lighted by one shaded lamp. In this safe there were piles of dingy papers and more dingy ledgers; […]

   • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 704:

     At last the first glimpse from a bridge of an open-top red bus, and a noticeable darkening of the atmosphere from the smoke of London: then the increasingly dingy stations with double-barrel names, set amid what has always been to me the outstanding feature of the "Premier Line" approach to London—the positively marvellous display of crazy chimney-pots on the grey inner suburban houses. As many as twenty, all of varying style, standing together like ranks of jagged teeth, and providing a Dickensian back-cloth which no other route can boast.

   • 2009, Sophie Kinsella, The Secret Dreamworld Of A Shopaholic: (Shopaholic Book 1):

     She's looking from Tarquin to Fenella with shining eyes, and I look at the picture interestedly over her shoulder. But to be honest, I can't say I'm impressed. For a start it's really dingy – all sludgy greens and brown

Derived terms

• dingily
• dinginess
• dingy dart
• dingy skipper
• grungy

Translations

dark, dull — see dark,‎ dull,‎ dismal

shabby, squalid, uncared-for — see shabby,‎ squalid,‎ uncared-for,‎ dirty

Etymology 2

Noun

dingy (plural dingies)

1. Alternative form of dinghy.

Verb

dingy (third-person singular simple present dingies, present participle dingying, simple past and past participle dingied)

1. Alternative form of dinghy.

Etymology 3

From ding +‎ -y.

Adjective

dingy (comparative dingier, superlative dingiest)

1. (informal, rare) Resembling or characteristic of a ding.
   • 1997, Frederick Barthelme, chapter 6, in Bob the Gambler, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 63:

     I love it when they hit. You know the sound when they hit? That dingy sound, it’s like faster, and contained somehow? That’s a great sound. Happens like a fraction of a second before you know what you’ve hit, before you figure it out.

   • [2008?], Colin Jacks, chapter IX, in The Manikin Textbook‎^[1], Jamaica Plain, Mass.: Mister Records, →OCLC, 2nd book, page 214:

     I remember we had a small electronic toy that had hot lines and made dingy sounds where you tried to eat all the pellets before the boxes with yellow inside them got you. Father said this was one of the first toys ever to be made and we were awe-struck by it.

   • 2012, Darrell Sroufe, “Modernized Newfangled Gizmos & Gadgets”, in Howdy Folks! I’m Fuster Buskins!, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 134:

     They was a button on that thar computer what said ‘Enter’. I pushed it ’cause I figgered it must be a doorbell. It didn’t make no dingy sound though.

Related terms

• ringy-dingy

References

• “dingy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “dingy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• dying