dings

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of ding.

   A series of shallow dings ran along the edge of the old guitar.

   The inspector noted several dings on the fender before approving the trade.

   Note

   One spelling does three jobs. Besides counting the noun ding, dings is the present-tense verb in "it dings," and in London slang it is the word for an unregistered car, which is singular despite its -s. As a plural it serves every noun sense of ding: small dents and chips, rejections, bell tones, even level-ups. A fender's dings and a job hunter's dings are very different counts.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of ding.

   The elevator dings softly each time it reaches a new floor.

   A careless shopper dings the car beside hers almost every week.

   Note

   Most of what ding does as a verb, it does to something. It strikes, dents, fires, docks points, or, on a golf course, mishits the ball. So dings usually takes an object: she dings the bumper, the examiner dings him for each error. The firing and penalizing uses are colloquial and belong in casual talk rather than formal writing.

3. 3
   noundialectalMulticultural London English

   Alternative form of dinger: an unregistered car.

   He picked up a dings from a guy down the street and drove it only on back roads.

   She left the dings parked in the yard rather than risk it on the highway.

   Note

   Multicultural London English slang, and a singular despite its final -s: you say a dings. ADK's "How? #LLMD" (2022) has the speaker arrive in a battered one. The word stays in that street register. Its fuller form dinger also carries a US and Canadian slang sense of "penis," which is worth knowing before you borrow either word.

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