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dingy

adj
/ˈdɪn.d͡ʒi/

Etymology

From English dialectal (Kentish) dingy (“dirty”), of unknown origin, though probably from Middle English *dingy, dungy, from Old English *dyncgiġ (“covered with dung, dirty”), an umlaut form of duncge, dung (“dung”), equivalent to dung + -y, hence a doublet of dungy.

  1. inherited from *dyncgiġ✻

Definitions

  1. Dark, dull.

    • The station has been refurbished both at ground level and below ground, where the wide, fluorescently lit platforms are an almost unrecognisable metamorphosis of the dingy, reeking Low Level of old.

  2. Shabby, squalid, uncared-for.

    • She's looking from Tarquin to Fenella with shining eyes, and I look at the picture interestedly over her shoulder. But to be honest, I can't say I'm impressed. For a start it's really dingy – all sludgy greens and brown

  3. Alternative form of dinghy.

  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Resembling or characteristic of a ding.

      • I love it when they hit. You know the sound when they hit? That dingy sound, it’s like faster, and contained somehow? That’s a great sound. Happens like a fraction of a second before you know what you’ve hit, before you figure it out.
      • They was a button on that thar computer what said ‘Enter’. I pushed it ’cause I figgered it must be a doorbell. It didn’t make no dingy sound though.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at dingy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01dingy02dinghy03lifeboat04shipwrecked05shipwreck06disaster07skater

A definitional loop anchored at dingy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at dingy

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA