ting

Pluraltings, ting

Formstings, tinging, tinged

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A high, sharp ringing sound, like a small bell being struck.

   A clear ting rose from the counter as the cashier finished the sale.

   The triangle added a bright ting at the end of every measure.

   Similarding, ping, tinkle, chime

   Note

   An echoic word, shaped to imitate the sound it names. It sits naturally in the pattern the ting of + whatever rings, and it is not reserved for bells: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) hears the ting of gold as sovereigns strike stone flagging, while Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1934) has the ting of a bell. The same sound also serves as the bare sound-word and the verb for making it.

2. 2
   interjection

   Used to represent the high, sharp sound of a small bell being struck.

   Ting! went the bicycle bell as she rounded the corner.

   Somewhere down the hall a microwave finished with a soft ting.

   Note

   An imitation of the sound itself, and the root of the noun and verb that follow. Writers often repeat it to mark a bell struck again and again: Charles Dickens has "Ting, ting, ting! went the bell" in Sketches by Boz (1839), and Claire Vaye Watkins drops coins "ting ting ting" in Gold Fame Citrus (2015). Set alone in capitals, TING, as David Walliams does in Ratburger (2012), it lands like a sound effect.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To make a high, sharp ringing sound, like a small bell being struck.

   Glass ornaments ting softly whenever a train passes the window.

   Each time she stirred, the spoon was tinging against the porcelain.

   Similartinkle, clink, ping, chime

   Note

   A regular verb whose past form, tinged, has the same spelling as the past tense of tinge, "to tint slightly." Context settles it. A bell or a microwave that tinged has rung, and a sky tinged with pink has been colored. When you mean the sound, a clear subject such as a bell, glass or spoon keeps the reading safe.

4. 4
   noundialectalMulticultural London Englishcountable

   A thing or person, often an attractive woman or a relative caught up in criminal schemes or disreputable connections.

   Everybody at the party was asking about his new ting.

   Don't get yourself tangled with that ting and his shady dealings.

   Note

   A form of thing, pronounced with t for th, that came from Caribbean creoles into Multicultural London English. It works as an all-purpose noun, and context decides whether it means an object or a person. Said possessively of a woman, it usually means a romantic interest. Central Cee and Dave's "Sprinter" (2023) uses it for one of the narrator's women, said to be dating P. Diddy. It belongs to casual speech and lyrics, not formal writing.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An ancient Chinese vessel standing on legs and fitted with a lid.

   Archaeologists unearthed a ceremonial ting at the burial site.

   The bronze ting bore inscriptions cast into its inner walls.

   Note

   A borrowing that only looks like the bell word. It comes from the Wade–Giles spelling of Mandarin 鼎, which today's romanization writes as dǐng. Wade–Giles writes t where the newer system writes d, so the same vessel can appear in English under either name. A ting in an older book is the same bronze object a newer catalog calls a ding.

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