Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sharp, high-pitched sound, as that made by a bullet striking metal.
- noun A protocol that sends a message to another computer and waits for acknowledgment, often used to check if another computer on a network is reachable.
- intransitive verb To make a sharp, high-pitched, metallic sound.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To produce a sound like that of a rifle-bullet whistling through the air.
- noun The whistling sound made by a bullet, as from a rifle, in passing through the air.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The sound made by a bullet in striking a solid object or in passing through the air.
- intransitive verb To make the sound called
ping .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.
- noun submarine navigation A pulse of high-pitched or ultrasonic sound whose echoes provide information about nearby objects and vessels.
- noun networking A packet which a remote
host is expected to echo, thus indicating its presence. - noun text messaging, Internet An
email or other message sent requesting acknowledgement. - verb To make a high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.
- verb submarine navigation To emit a signal and then listen for its echo in order to detect objects.
- verb networking To send a packet in order to determine whether a
host is present, particularly by use of the ping utility. - verb networking To ping and receive an acknowledgement.
- verb To send an email or other message to someone in hopes of eliciting a response.
- verb colloquial To
flick . - verb colloquial, sports, intransitive To
bounce . - verb colloquial, sports, transitive To cause something to bounce.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb hit with a pinging noise
- noun a river in western Thailand; a major tributary of the Chao Phraya
- verb contact, usually in order to remind of something
- noun a sharp high-pitched resonant sound (as of a sonar echo or a bullet striking metal)
- verb make a short high-pitched sound
- verb send a message from one computer to another to check whether it is reachable and active
- verb sound like a car engine that is firing too early
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Here, on the terrace where I sit, and where ladies in needlessly costly robes are promenading up and down to exhibit their superfluous wealth ostentatiously to one another, my ear is continuously assailed by the constant _ping, ping, ping_ of the pigeon-shooting, and my peace disturbed by the flapping death-agonies of those miserable victims.
Post-Prandial Philosophy Grant Allen 1873
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There was the _ping, ping, ping_, of the mosquitoes, and the piteous wailing shriek of the jackals as they hunted in a pack, and there, too, was the monotonous tramp of the sentry, hour after hour.
Gil the Gunner The Youngest Officer in the East George Manville Fenn 1870
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Then I came back to my laptop and saw a ping from the culprit.
La Cinderella Anjali 2009
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Some of us are chary of giving every stranger in ping-shot a pretext for striking up a conversation.
Digital Signalling 2009
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Then I came back to my laptop and saw a ping from the culprit.
Archive 2009-06-01 Anjali 2009
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If the Tigers were playing Satan in ping pong, I would be yelling GO BIG RED!
Forget the BCS: The Best of the Rest | Heretical Ideas Magazine 2008
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This post made my brain ping just that little bit extra!
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Risk Premiums on Junk Begin Creeping Wider Risk premiums on U.S. junk bonds have widened this week, sapping a 20-day winning streak, as risky companies continue to raise debt.
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KING OF PING PONG (PING PONGKINGEN)/Sweden (Director and Screenwriter: Jens Jonsson) - An ostracized and bullied teenage boy who excels only in ping pong descends into an acrimonious struggle with his younger, more popular brother when the truth about their family history and their father surfaces over the course of their spring break.
Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat 2007
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Something about the word ping-pong caused Matt to ask if it had any meaning in Mandarin.
Ping-ponging in China? Heed this language lesson. - 22 Words 2008
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Shortz attempts to teach me table tennis – no sportsman calls it ping-pong, a term associated, scornfully, with “garage players” – but after I sufficiently embarrass myself I bow out.
‘I’ve outlasted them all’: the spectacular life of the world’s most powerful crossword editor J Oliver Conroy 2021
seanahan commented on the word ping
A program which sends a message from one computer to another to verify they are connected. In programming jargon, it has extended to all sorts of things. Such as, we're about to leave for lunch, why don't you ping John at his desk and see if he wants to come.
October 31, 2007
uselessness commented on the word ping
I'm pretty sure the word originally comes from naval jargon. A ping is a sound emitted by a ship to find submarines via echolocation, I think.
October 31, 2007
reesetee commented on the word ping
That's how I first heard the word too, uselessness.
November 1, 2007
travismcdermott commented on the word ping
1833 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 306/2 There was no ping pinging of the shot overhead.
April 22, 2008
alexz commented on the word ping
"From my point of view PING is not an acronym standing for Packet InterNet Grouper, it's a sonar analogy."
- Mike Muuss The software author of the PING command.
http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/ping.html
March 21, 2014