dingbat

ˈdɪŋbæt

3 definitions

0—

#1·8h ago

(informal) A silly, crazy or stupid person.

'Midge was such a dingbat', Jenny Fields wrote in her autobiography, 'that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during World War Two.'

Origin: , US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles. In the sense of a miscellaneous gadget, probably influenced by dingus or its etyma. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Was this helpful?

Comments (0)

No comments yet — say something.

0—

#2·8h ago

(typography) A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc.

I hung around the older crews while they sling smack to dingbats

Was this helpful?

Comments (0)

No comments yet — say something.

0—

#3·8h ago

(architecture) An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars.

The fire department is out here because some dingbat parked in the red zone.

Was this helpful?

Comments (0)

No comments yet — say something.

Have a better definition?

Add your own interpretation of "dingbat".

Add definition

⚡About Tech, Dev & AI slang

The vocabulary of software engineers, AI researchers, and anyone living in a terminal or on GitHub — from LLM to MCP, CORS to vibe coding, agentic to enshittification.

See all Tech, Dev & AI slang on Slangora.