▪ I. dong, n.4
(dɒŋ)
Pl. unchanged or dongs.
[a. Vietnamese đ{ocircgrave}ng coin, piastre.]
A monetary unit of Vietnam (now the principal unit and equivalent to 10 hào or 100 xu); a coin or note of this value. Cf. piastre n. 3.
| 1824 J. White Voy. Cochin China xvi. 257 Accounts are kept in Cochin China, in quans; tayens, or mace; and dong, or sepecks. 1882 Jrnl. N. China Branch R. Asiatic Soc. XVII. 68 At present, one copper cash or..Dong is equal to ten zinc cash. 1948 W. Raymond Coins of World (ed. 3) 130 Viet Nam Government... Dong. Aluminum. 1946. 1956 F. Reinfeld Catal. World's Most Popular Coins (1957) 133/2, 1 Dong = 1 Piastre. 1975 New Yorker 6 Oct. 147/1 The North Vietnamese dong had formerly been worth three hundred piastres, and now it was worth four or five hundred. 1981 M. Baker Nam iii. 192 Little shoeshine boys would also come out there at that time to polish your boots... We'd give them a dong for the job—that's like a twentieth of a cent. |
▪ II. dong, v.
(dɒŋ)
[Echoic; expressing a sound of deeper tone than ding.]
1. intr. To sound as a large bell.
| 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1579/2 Where they might..heare the donging of the belles as they hoong in the steeples. 1954 J. Masters Bhowani Junction xxxiv. 291 A copper⁓smith bird donged with maddening persistence among the bushes in the garden. |
2. trans. To hit, punch (esp. Austral. and N.Z.); to force by reiterated noise, speech, or effort. Cf. ding v.1 2 a. colloq.
| 1889 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Through Long Night I. i. xv. 243 She had to be dinged and donged into obedience. 1928 Blunden Undertones of War 291 The drum-tap dongs my brain To a whirring void. 1930 Bulletin (Sydney) 7 May 21/1, I done me block an' donged 'im proper. 1937 N. Marsh Vintage Murder vi. 66 It was certainly a high-class way of murdering anybody... Dong him one with a gallon of champagne. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. x. 196 ‘Dong him on the dome’ (head). 1960 N. Hilliard Maori Girl iii. x. 133 I'll dong you if you say it any more. 1961 P. White Riders in Chariot xi. 410 ‘I will dong you one,’ shouted Hannah, ‘before you tear this bloody fur.’ |
▪ III. dong, n.1
(dɒŋ)
[Echoic: see the vb.]
1. An imitation of the deep sound of a large bell. Cf. ding, ding-dong.
| a 1882 Rossetti Wks. (1890) II. 343 And bells say ding to bells that answer dong. |
2. Austral. and N.Z. colloq. A heavy blow, a punch.
| 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 24 Dong, a blow, esp. with the fist. 1965 Telegraph (Brisbane) 5 July 8 Dong, poke (punch). |
▪ IV. dong, n.3 coarse slang (chiefly U.S.).
(dɒŋ)
[Origin unknown; perh. f. prec.]
= penis.
| 1930 in Amer. Speech V. 390. 1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath xvi. 245 Tell 'em ya dong's growed sence you los' your eye. 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1124/2 Three Canadian terms for ‘penis’..are dink, dong, hammer. 1969 P. Roth Portnoy's Complaint 18, I was wholly incapable of keeping my paws off my dong. |
▪ V. dong(e
obs. form of dung.
▪ VI. dong(e
obs. pa. tense and pple. of ding v.1