din
verbEtymology From Middle English dynnen, from Old English dynnan, from Proto-Germanic *dunjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwen- (“to make a noise”).
1
To make a din, to resound.
- 1820, William Wordsworth, “The Waggoner” Canto 2, in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Volume 2, p. 21, For, spite of rumbling of the wheels, A welcome greeting he can hear;— It is a fiddle in its glee Dinning from the CHERRY TREE!
- My confused senses received a dull roar of pounding feet and dinning voices as the herald of victory.1920, Zane Grey, “The Rube’s Pennant”, in The Redheaded Outfield and Other Baseball Stories, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 68:
2 more examples
- Should she speak of having been at the fire herself—or should she not? The question dinned in her brain so loudly that she could hardly hear what her companion was saying […]1924, Edith Wharton, chapter 4, in Old New York: New Year’s Day (The ’Seventies), New York: D. Appleton & Co., pages 62–63:
- Those who slept that Sunday night in the Juvenile Shelter were wakened next morning by a bell dinning up and down the corridors[.]1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 231:
2
(of a place) To be filled with sound, to resound.
- The room was dinning with the strains of an invisible orchestra and the vocal uproar […]1914, Rex Beach, chapter 3, in The Auction Block, New York: Harper & Bros., page 33:
3
To assail (a person, the ears) with loud noise.
- 1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder: or Political Essays, London: D. Midwinter & J. Tonson, No. 8, 16 January, 1716, pp. 45-46, She ought in such Cases to exert the Authority of the Curtain Lecture; and if she finds him of a rebellious Disposition, to tame him, as they do Birds of Prey, by dinning him in the Ears all Night long.
- Oh ye! whose ears are dinn’d with uproar rude, Or fed too much with cloying melody,— Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired!1817, John Keats, “On the Sea”, in Richard Monckton Milnes, editor, Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats, volume 2, London: Edward Moxon, published 1848, page 291:
1 more example
- No alarm-clock dinned her to get up but the morning light woke her, pouring through the uncurtained glass.1938, Graham Greene, chapter 1, in Brighton Rock, New York: Vintage, published 2002:
4
To repeat (something) continuously, as though to the point of deafening or exhausting somebody, or (sometimes particularly) to impress or instill (it, into someone).
- This has been often dinned in my Ears.1724, The Hibernian Patriot: Being a Collection of the Drapier’s Letters to the People of Ireland concerning Mr. Wood’s Brass Half-Pence, London: Jonathan Swift, published 1730, Letter 2, p. 61:
- “Mamma, do you forget that I have promised to marry Roger Hamley?” said Cynthia quietly. “No! of course I don’t—how can I, with Molly always dinning the word ‘engagement’ into my ears? […]”1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 50, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC:
3 more examples
- By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, by the rubbish that was dinned into them at school and in the Spies and the Youth League, by lectures, parades, songs, slogans, and martial music, the natural feeling had been driven out of them.1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 6, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001:
- His mother had dinned The Whole Duty of Man into him in early childhood.2004, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, page 183:
- […] despite all the wisdom that had been taught, all the lessons dinned into easily frightened children, and, on too many occasions in all those years, enforced by fire and sword, the mystery here was one of and for women.2014 April 1, Susan Shwartz, Shards of Empire, Open Road Media, →ISBN:
- Synonyms
- drum
- Derived terms
- outdin, unbedinned