▪ I. jingle, v.
(ˈdʒɪŋg(ə)l)
Also 4–6 gyngle, 5 gyngel, gingelle, 6 gingil, iyngel, iengle, 7–9 gingle.
[Imitative: cf. dingle, tinkle, Du. jengelen, and G. klingeln. There does not appear any original association with jangle.]
1. intr. To give forth a mingling of ringing sounds, as by the striking together of coins, keys, or other small metallic objects; it expresses a more prolonged and continuous sound than clink, and a more complicated one than tinkle.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 170 Whan he rood men myghte his brydel heere Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd als cleere And eek as loude as dooth þe Chapel belle. 1530 Palsgr. 566/1, I gyngyll, I make a noyse, as thinges of metall do whan they be shaked togyther. 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. x. 213 To haue a great sort of siluer sounded belles, gynglyng aboute their horse neckes. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 147 Their bels iyngling. 1607 Middleton Five Gallants ii. iii, To hear my money gingle in other men's pockets. 1628 Earle Microcosm., A Gallant (Arb.) 39 Hee..takes great delight in his walke to heare his Spurs gingle. 1653 A. Wilson Jas. I, 110 Her chains gingled as she came. 1824 Byron Juan xv. lxx, The glasses jingled, and the palates tingled. 1870 Disraeli Lothair xxi. I. 173 The bells..gingled. 1871–4 J. Thomson City Dreadf. Nt. ix. ii, The harness jingles, as it passes by. |
b. transf. and fig. (Cf. ring.)
| 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 76 How..their roaring oaths gingle in their mouthes. 1867 Fortn. Rev. Oct. 379 There is not one word in the whole quotation but jingles false. |
c. To proceed or move with a jingling sound.
| 1732 Pope Ep. Bathurst 37 From the crack'd bagg the dropping Guinea spoke..gingling down the back-stairs. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Clubs Wks. (Bohn) III. 93 To fairly disengage the mass, and send it jingling down, a good bowlder. 1894 Mrs. Ritchie Chapters from Mem. iii. 36 A yellow carriage jingled by. |
d. quasi-trans. with it.
| 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies ii. Pedler 19 Here the Guga⁓girles gingle it with his neat nifles. |
2. trans. To cause (something) to emit a mingling of ringing sounds.
| 1508 Kennedy Flyting w. Dunbar 506 Bot gif it war to gyngill Iudas bellis. 1515 Barclay Egloges iii. (1570) C ij/1 The kitchin clarke..Iengling his counters. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 172 Fannes of brasse, hung about with rings, which they gingle in stops according to their marchings. 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. xlv, Another..gingles several bells fixed to his cap. 1874 Burnand My time xi. 93 Jingling his keys in one pocket. |
3. intr. a. Of prose or verse: To sound with alliteration, rimes, or other repetitions.
| 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 67 Then comes the joy of joyes, when the parts jingle, or begin with the same letter; and especially if in Latin. 1780 Howard Prisons Eng. 115 In this chamber on the wall is inscribed a gingling verse,..Ad mala patrata, sunt atra theatra parata. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 535 Compositions of all sorts, from sermons with sixteen heads down to jingling street ballads. |
b. To play with words for the sake of sound; (depreciatively) to rime.
| 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xvi. 113 Rich in Latine, though he doth not gingle with it in every company. 1708 Ockley Hist. Saracens Pref. (1848) 18 At other times jingling upon words. 1714 Pope Let. 13 July, I should be sorry and ashamed, to go on jingling to the last step. 1785 Burns First Ep. Lapraik ix, Whene'er my Muse does on me glance, I jingle at her. |
c. trans. To rime. (depreciative.)
| 1894 F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) LVIII. 252/1 Carlyle..I have more than once seen spoken of as having first jingled end with mend. |
Hence ˈjingle-ˈjingle, reduplication of the vb.-stem, used advb. = with continued jingling.
| 1664 Cotton Scarron. iv. Poet. Wks. (1765) 85 Gingle gingle went her Bridle. |
▪ II. jingle, n.
(ˈdʒɪŋg(ə)l)
Also 6–9 gingle, 7 yingle, 9 gingell.
[f. prec. vb.]
1. a. A noise such as is made by small bells, a chain of loose links, or loose pieces of metal when struck; a sound intermediate between clinking and ringing.
| 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. Pref. 35 The gingle of his spurre, and the ierke of his wande. 1678 Otway Friendship in F. 18 We know when a certain Spark of this Town is at hand by the new fangled gingle of his Coach. 1791 E. Inchbald Simp. Story I. vii. 75 The gentle gingle of a teaspoon. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey v. vi, No other sound was heard, except the jingle of the dollars and Napoleons. 1833 H. Martineau Three Ages ii. 73 Mrs. Reade heard the jingle of the chain. 1874 Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. ii. 30 The continual jingle of our sledge-bells. |
b. Applied depreciatively to other sounds.
| 1827 Carlyle Misc., Richter (1869) I. 7 The jingle of the household operations seemed not at all to disturb him. 1842 Thoreau Excurs., Nat. Hist. Mass. (1863) 46 The gingle of the song-sparrow salutes us from the shrubs and fences. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. v. 184, I hear nothing but the..scolding and the jingle of the piano. |
2. a. Something that jingles; a jingling bell; anything adapted to produce a jingling sound.
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 173 Who instead of musicall instruments, have sawcers of brasse (which they strike against one another) set about with gingles. 1625 Bacon Ess., Plantations (Arb.) 534 If you Plant, where Sauages are, doe not onely entertaine them with Trifles, and Gingles; But vse them iustly. 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 1248 The tambourine,..and the Turkish jingle, used in the army. |
b. Austral. slang. Money. Cf. jingle-boy.
| 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands viii. 99 Ther Elder dug in 'n' brought up er 'andful iv jingle. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 39 Jingle, money. |
3. a. The affected repetition of the same sound or of a similar series of sounds, as in alliteration, rime, or assonance; any arrangement of words intended to have a pleasing or striking sound without regard to the sense; a catching array of words, whether in prose or verse. Chiefly contemptuous.
| c 1645 Howell Lett. (1892) II. 658 In the perusal of these Parables..you shall find no gingles in them. 1663 Bp. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. 157 Frivolous hearers, who are more pleased with little gingles, and tinkling of words than with the most perswasive arguments. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 261 As if that old Gingle were logically true. 1717 Addison Spect. No. 297 ¶16 Milton..often affects a kind of Jingle in his Words, as in the following Passages..‘And brought into the World a World of Woe’. 1791 Gentl. Mag. 26/2 Several pages of his sermons consisting of a series of verbal quibbles and jingles. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. i. §35. 32 This gingle is certainly pleasing in itself. 1879 Farrar St. Paul I. 534 Their so-called philosophy had become little better than a jingle of phrases. |
b. A short verse or song in a radio or television commercial or in general advertising.
| 1930 A. Flexner Universities i. xxv. 165 Let the psychologists study advertising..in order to understand what takes place when a jingle like ‘not a cough in a carload’ persuades a nation to buy a new brand of cigarettes. 1949 Life 28 Mar. 36/1 She abhors the jingle's suggestion that she be taken home and squeezed. 1959 Punch 10 June 769/1 He says I can't possibly get on in the jingles business without going to Oxford. Ibid. 17 June 815/2 Channel 9 already gets into hot water when its ‘natural breaks’ happen to clip a speech in mid-sentence: its life would not be worth living if it saw fit..to substitute a jingle for the heavyweight's knock-out hook. 1968 Listener 26 Sept. 421/3 Certainly those hideous jingles could go: it made good sense for Radio London or Radio Caroline, as new, commercial stations, to tell us that they were wonderful, but the BBC could spare itself that reassurance. 1972 D. Ramsay Little Murder Music 76 Colby was working a jingle date. Ibid., The jingle, a singing commercial for a detergent, was being recorded. |
4. A covered two-wheeled car used in Cornwall, the south of Ireland, and in Australia. Also attrib.
| 1806 Carr Stranger Irel. v. 111, I mounted a jingle at the great jingle stand at the corner of Bagot Street. 1824 T. C. Croker Researches S. Ireland ii. 34 Jingles..have been established between the principal towns. These are carriages on easy springs,..to contain six or eight persons. 1829 Blackw. Mag. XXV. 772/2 Ultimately the gingle was almost abandoned for the jaunting-car. 1842 Thackeray Fitz-Boodle Papers Pref., I got it..from..a jingle-driver. 1862 Clara Aspinall Three Yrs. Melbourne 122 (Morris) Gentlemen who have lived in India will persist in calling this vehicle a jingle;..it is a kind of dos-a-dos conveyance, holding three in front, and three behind, it has a water⁓proof top to it..and oilskin curtains to draw all round. 1874 A. I. Thackeray Let. 12 July (1924) viii. 158 You come to a most detestable little object called Bude..and then you..come home in a little thing called a Jingle. 1887 Cassell's Picturesque Australasia I. 64 The jingle has been ousted by the one-horse waggonette. 1892 Pall Mall G. 17 Aug. 2/3 Queenstown is full... The jingle men, as they are called here..are making their fortunes. 1906 Daily Chron. 10 Mar. 4/4 When I asked one of the drivers how to reach the Cornish border, he offered to convey me..in a jingle-cart. 1924 C. Mackenzie Heavenly Ladder ii. 34 He saw the black-coated train toiling up Pendhu hill,..some leading the ponies in the jingles. 1942 A. L. Rowse Cornish Childhood vii. 189, I was sent to put the donkey into the shay or jingle. |
5. An American name for the shell of the saddle-oyster, Anomia. Also attrib.
| 1887 Fisheries U.S. Sect. v. II. 543 A more fragile shell, such as a scallop, mussel, or jingle (Anomia) is certainly better. 1889 Pall Mall G. 9 Aug. 3/3 A large collection of scallop and jingle shells—gold and silver shells the little people call them. |
6. attrib. and Comb. (see also senses 4 and 5), as jingle-bell, etc. (see quots.); jingle-boy (slang), a coin, spec. a sovereign; also, a man who has plenty of money in his pockets.
| 1887 Bicycling News 21 May 99/1 My light was burning brilliantly and my *jingle bell going at the time. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 71/1 The captain of the launch pulls the ‘jingle bell’ for full speed ahead. |
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Jingle-boxes, Leathern Jacks tipt and hung with Silver Bells formerly in use among Fuddle Caps. |
| c 1600 Day Begg. Bednall Gr. v. (1881) 111 Come, old fellow, bring thy white Bears to the Stake, and thy yellow *gingle boys to the Bull-ring. a 1652 Brome Covent Gard. i. Wks. 1873 II. 16 There is a Gallant now below, a Gingle boy indeed, that has his pockets full of crowns that chide for vent. 1891 Farmer Slang, Canary,..2... a sovereign. English Synonyms..Yellow hammer; shiner; gingleboy; monarch. |
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Jingle-brains, a Maggot-pated Fellow. |
▪ III. jingle
obs. form of jungle n.