▪ I. dingo, n.
(ˈdɪŋgəʊ)
[Native Australian name in an obs. dialect of N.S. Wales.
The nearest name in Ridley Kamilaroi is jūnghō in the (now probably extinct) language of George's River; in the extinct Turuwul of Botany Bay, the name was jūgūng.]
1. The wild, or semi-domesticated dog of Australia, Canis dingo.
| 1789 Tench Botany Bay 83 The only domestic animal they [the Aborigines] have is the dog, which in their language is called Dingo. 1790 J. Hunter App. White's Voy. N.S. Wales Wks. 1837 IV. 493 A Dingo, or Dog of New South Wales. 1802 G. Barrington Hist. N.S. Wales xi. 430 The Dog or Dingo barks in a way peculiar to itself. 1852 Mundy Our Antipodes vi. 153 The dingo, warragal, or native dog does not hunt in packs. 1868 Carleton Austral. Nights 5 The fierce dingo's hideous eye. 1884 Illustr. Sydney News 26 Aug. 5/3 The..sundowners..are becoming as rare as the dingoes. |
2. Austral. slang. A contemptuous term for a person: a cheat, scoundrel, traitor, coward.
| 1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xvi. 182 The bitch has twice the guts of the old dingo. 1941 K. Tennant Battlers viii. 90 The bagmen are a mob of dingoes. 1948 V. Palmer Golconda ix. 67 That old she-dingo..wants us to believe this boy was loosing hell on them. Ibid. xxxi. 261 I'd be a hell of a dingo..if I didn't help you now. |
▪ II. dingo, v. Austral. slang.
(ˈdɪŋgəʊ)
[f. the n.]
a. intr. To retreat, back out, act in a cowardly or treacherous manner; to dingo on (someone) (see quot. 1941). b. trans. To back out of; to shirk.
| 1935 Bulletin (Sydney) 29 May p. ii/4, I gave him a rather hot time for the first half; in the second round he ‘dingoed’, letting us through repeatedly, much to his team-mates' disgust. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 23 To dingo on, to betray, let down, ‘rat on’ a person. 1952 J. Cleary Sundowners iii. 186 You ain't dingoing it, are you? You can't toss in the towel now. |