ping
Pluralpings
Pluralpings
- 1A high-pitched, short, and fairly sharp sound.
The tuning fork gave a clear ping when she struck it against the desk.
A sharp ping rang out as the pebble struck the metal hull.
Similarting, ding, clink, chime
Note
Two strands meet in this word. One is imitative: the word copies the sound itself. The other is Middle English pingen, 'to push, prod, pierce', from Old English pyngan, 'to prick', likely from pungere (compare pang). The sound noun is the imitative strand, and it suits sudden, small noises: a car's odd ping, or the rabbit that appears 'with a sudden ping' in Douglas Adams's Life, the Universe and Everything (1982).
- 2To make a high-pitched, short, and fairly sharp sound.
Old radiators ping as they warm up in the morning.
The cooling engine pinged softly as the metal contracted.
Similartick, clink, ting, ding
Note
The sound verb takes no object: things ping on their own. In Francine Rivers's And the Shofar Blew (2013) a microwave pings, and a car engine can keep pinging until its oil is changed. The past tense is regularly pinged. A strong past, pang, modeled on sing and sang, also turns up for both past and participle, but it is nonstandard. Write pinged.
- 3To send a packet to a host in order to learn whether it is present, typically using the ping utility.
Technicians ping remote servers before scheduling any maintenance work.
The administrator pinged each node to confirm the network was up.
Note
The name belongs to a utility as much as an action. Ping is also a program, and to ping a host is usually to run it. The verb is transitive, as in pinging their server or a server pinging its affiliates. Allan Reid and Jim Lorenz's Cisco Press guide (2008) adds a caution: a server you cannot ping is not necessarily down or inaccessible.
- 4A packet that a remote host is expected to echo back, confirming its presence.
Each ping returned within a few milliseconds, confirming the host was reachable.
The diagnostic tool sends a ping and waits for the echo.
Note
Networking took over the sonar idea almost unchanged: a small packet goes out, and an echo coming back proves the host is there. Technically it is an ICMP echo request, answered by an echo reply. The word is freely countable, and because each ping is real traffic, enough of them can weigh on a network, as in all the pings going out.
- 5To message someone by email, chat, or text, typically to prompt a reply.
Ping me once the documents are ready for review.
He pinged the team on Slack to ask for an update.
Similarmessage, contact, nudge
Note
The casual verb for a nudge takes a person as its object: ping me, ping the insurance company. It can also take a second object for the medium. Pryce-Jones and Lindsay's Running Great Meetings and Workshops For Dummies (2014) advises readers to 'ping them an email or private chat message.' William Safire played on it in the New York Times in 2001: 'don't ping me; I'll ping you.'
- 6A notification, such as an alert a device displays when something needs attention.
A ping from the calendar app reminded her of the appointment.
Every ping on his watch made him glance down at his wrist.
Similarnotification, alert, buzz
Note
A piece of Wikimedia jargon. On the wiki projects, a ping is simply the notification telling an editor that something needs their attention. Within that community it is the ordinary, unremarkable word. Outside it, and especially in formal writing, notification is the safer choice, because readers who don't know the jargon may expect a sound or a network packet.
- 7An email or other message sent to request acknowledgement or a reply.
Her ping went unanswered for the whole afternoon.
Send me a ping when you've finished reviewing the draft.
Note
Online usage stretched the network packet to people. A ping is a short message whose real purpose is to get an answer, the human version of checking that a host is alive. It is less a full letter than a nudge, such as a ping to an insurer to confirm a claim arrived. It shares its casual tone with the verb for nudging someone.
- 8The time delay in a network connection, measured by how long a signal takes to make a round trip.
A ping under twenty milliseconds feels almost instant in online games.
High ping during the match made every move feel sluggish.
Note
Gamers use the word for a measurement, not a packet. It means the round-trip delay itself, usually counted in milliseconds. The fixed pairings are low ping and high ping, and low is the advantage. In alt.games.half in 2000, 'low ping' was hurled as an insult at a player who seemed to win only through his connection. In 2002, alt.games.unreal.tournament discussed a 'zero ping mutator' to offset a high one.
- 9A marker placed on the game map to highlight a location or object for allied players to see.
He spammed pings on the objective until the team regrouped.
A single ping on the map alerted everyone to the incoming attack.
Similarmarker
Note
Multiplayer games made the word a gesture. A player drops a temporary marker on the shared map to flag a location, a threat or an objective. Allies see it and usually hear it, so the team can coordinate without voice chat. The name keeps the old idea of a signal sent out for others to notice. It is countable: a single ping, or a flurry of them on one objective.
- 10A pulse of high-pitched sound whose echoes reveal nearby objects and vessels underwater.
Like a bat's call bouncing off objects in the dark to reveal them.
The sonar operator listened for the ping returning from the hull ahead.
A single ping revealed the depth of the seabed below.
Similarpulse
Note
Sonar gave the sound a working job. The pulse is deliberate and often ultrasonic. It is sent through water, and its reflections are timed to give the range and bearing of whatever lies ahead, whether that is the seabed or another vessel. The usual collocations are to send out a ping and to get an echo back. Doing it is the sonar verb.
- 11To locate objects by sending out a pulse, as in sonar, and picking up the echo that bounces back from them.
The destroyer continued to ping as it searched the channel for the submarine.
Submarines that ping reveal their own position to anyone listening.
Note
Here the verb names the whole routine: send the pulse, then listen. It often stands without an object, as when a destroyer keeps pinging, because the target is unknown until an echo returns. The delay and direction of that echo then locate it. The habit carried over into computing, where the network verb takes a definite object: you ping a particular server.
- 12To flick something sharply, typically with a quick movement of the finger.
He reached over to ping the wine glass and hear it ring.
Bored students ping bits of paper at each other.
Note
The finger-flick sense echoes the older strand of the word, the Middle English pingen 'to prod' traced under the sound noun. It is colloquial and transitive, with the thing propelled as its object. It usually pairs with off, as in pinging a crumb off the table, so the phrase names both the flick and where the object ends up.
- 13To cause an object to bounce, as off a hard surface.
Players ping the puck off the boards to reach a teammate.
He pinged the marble off the rim to knock the others loose.
Note
Here a player does the work and the ball is the object. In football reporting it can describe a crisp, driven pass more than a literal bounce. In Chris Whyatt's BBC report 'Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton' (2010), Essien 'pinged the ball into the space' for Drogba to run onto. Speed and precision are what the word adds over a plain hit or pass.
- 14To bounce, especially off a hard surface.
Stray pucks sometimes ping off the glass into the crowd.
The marble pinged off the rim and rolled away.
Similarbounce, ricochet, rebound
Note
Sports talk uses it for a fast, hard rebound. The moving object is the subject, and off marks the surface struck: the ball pinged off the wall and came hurtling back. It takes no object. When a player makes the ball do it, the word becomes its causative partner. It is colloquial, at home in commentary and casual talk.
- 15To call out something audibly to others.
Defenders ping to each other to coordinate their positions.
She pinged loudly so the whole team could hear the plan.
Note
Sports reports blur this sense with the "penalize" meaning. Ben Dirs wrote in BBC Sport in 2011 that James Haskell 'was eventually pinged from in front of the posts for not releasing.' There it is the referee calling out an offense, not a teammate shouting a warning. A for phrase naming a fault is the sign that a penalty is meant. Without one, the word is simply a call heard across the field.
- 16To penalize someone, typically with a fine or other sanction.
Officials can ping a driver for even a minor violation.
The umpire pinged the bowler for overstepping the line.
Similarpenalize, fine, punish, sanction
Note
Typically passive and followed by for and the offense: pinged for holding the ball, pinged for not releasing. The consequence often comes in the same breath, as in 'was pinged … and gave away a free kick.' It is colloquial, the language of match reports and conversation. In formal writing, penalized does the same job.
- 17To trigger someone's sense that a person is gay; to look or act obviously homosexual.
His new coworker pinged immediately, though no one said anything.
Some people ping the instant they open their mouths.
Note
LGBTQ slang that works two ways. Without an object, someone simply pings. With one, he 'pings her gaydar big time,' as Maxim Jakubowski writes in The Book of Extraordinary Femme Fatale Stories (2022). The 'but' in 'Bob has two kids, but he really pings' shows that it reports an impression, not a fact. That makes it a remark for informal, in-group talk rather than a label to pin on anyone.
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Practice
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Origin
The word is partly onomatopoeic, imitating the sound. It also continues Middle English pingen ("to push, shove, pierce, prod, urge"), from Old English pyngan ("to prick"), which in turn likely came from Latin pungere; compare English pang.