ping
verbEtymology Partly onomatopoeic, and partly continuing Middle English pingen (“to push, shove, pierce, stab, prod, goad, urge, feel remorse, incite”), from Old English pyngan (“to prick”), in turn likely from pungere. Compare English pang.
10 senses
- 1To make a high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.
- 2To emit a signal and then listen for its echo in order…
- 3To send a packet in order to determine whether a host is…
- 4To send an email or other message to someone in hopes of…
- 5To flick.
- 6To bounce.
- 7To cause something to bounce.
- 8To call out audibly.
- 9To penalize.
- 10To trigger a person's gaydar; to look or act obviously…
To make a high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.
- My car was pinging until my last oil change.
- The microwave pinged. He forked the steak onto the plate and set the timer again.2013, Francine Rivers, And the Shofar Blew:
To emit a signal and then listen for its echo in order to detect objects.
Submarine navigation
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Networking, Physical sciences, Sciences To send a packet in order to determine whether a host is present, particularly by use of the ping utility.
- I'm pinging their server.
- The server pings its affiliates periodically.
1 more example
- Just because you cannot ping a server or telnet to it does not mean that the server is down or inaccessible.2008, Allan Reid, Jim Lorenz, Working at a Small-to-Medium Business or ISP, Cisco Press, →ISBN:
Broadly To send an email or other message to someone in hopes of eliciting a response.
- I'll ping the insurance company again to see if they've received our claim.
- If any deeper etymology is required, Arthur, don't ping me; I'll ping you.2001 November 25, William Safire, “On Language; The Arab Street”, in New York Times:
1 more example
- If certain attendees don't actively participate and that's a surprise to you, ping them an email or private chat message and ask what's happening for them.2014, Jessica Pryce-Jones, Julia Lindsay, Running Great Meetings and Workshops For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 294:
Colloquial To flick.
- I pinged the crumb off the table with my finger.
Colloquial To bounce.
- The ball pinged off the wall and came hurtling back.
- At that moment a rifle cracked. The bullet pinged against the railings and whirred off on a ricochet.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 101:
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Colloquial To cause something to bounce.
- Charging through the Bolton midfield to find a free moment, Essien then pinged the ball into the space into which Drogba was intelligently running.2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC:
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Colloquial To call out audibly.
- However, after an inside pass from Moody to Tom Croft and a surge from the England blind-side, number eight James Haskell was eventually pinged from in front of the posts for not releasing.2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport:
Australia, Colloquial To penalize.
- Gary Ablett was pinged for holding the ball and gave away a free kick.
Ambitransitive, Slang To trigger a person's gaydar; to look or act obviously homosexual.
- Bob has two kids, but he really pings.
- Plus, he pings her gaydar big time, although there's nothing obvious about it in his comportment.2022, Maxim Jakubowski, The Book of Extraordinary Femme Fatale Stories:
- Derived terms
- ghost-ping, pingable, pingback, pingee, pinger, pingingly, reply-ping