▪ I. ting, n.1
(tɪŋ)
[f. ting v.: cf. ding n.2]
a. The sound emitted by a small bell, or other resonant body, as a thin glass vessel, as the result of a single stroke; a thinner or sharper sound than that expressed by tang. Also advb., or without grammatical construction, esp. when repeated.
| 1602 Middleton Blurt iv. ii, Midnight's bell goes ting, ting, ting. 1611 Cotgr., Tinton,..the ting of a bell. 1677 Wallis in Phil. Trans. XII. 842 A thin..Venice-glass, cracked with the..sound of a Trompet..sounding an Unison or a Consonant note to that of the Tone or Ting of the Glass. 1859 Cornwallis Panorama New World I. 178 The liquid ting—ting—ting of the bell-bird. 1895 Zangwill The Master ii. ix, His own turn came, announced by the sharp ting of a hand-bell. 1898 G. W. E. Russell Coll. & Recoll. xxxiv. 473 The shrill ting-ting of the division-bell. 1906 Daily Chron. 14 Feb. 6/7 ‘Ting’ went the bell. |
b. ting-a-ling (ling), ting-a-ring, tingating (rare.), the sound of the continued ringing of a small bell, or the like. Also advb. Cf. tink-a-tink s.v. tink int. and n.
| 1833 J. Marcet Seasons II. Spring iv. 54 The great dinner-bell went ting a ring a ring a ring. 1862 C. C. Robinson Leeds Gloss. 436 ‘Ting-elin, all in’... ‘Its ommast ting-elin now’. 1879 Macdonald Sir Gibbie xix, I hae naething till acquaint yer honour wi', sir, but the ting-a-ling o'tongues. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 20 Jan. 5/1 Ting-a-ling. Telephone again. ‘Who's there?’ 1922 Joyce Ulysses 734 And he so quiet and mild with his tingating zither. 1932 T. S. Eliot Sweeney Agonistes 12 Telephone: Ting a ling ling. Ting a ling ling. |
▪ II. ‖ ting, n.4
(dɪŋ, tɪŋ)
[Chinese dĭng.]
An ancient Chinese vessel, usu. bronze, having two looped handles and three or four legs (see quots.).
| 1904 S. W. Bushell Chinese Art I. iv. 80 The word ting is occasionally rendered ‘tripod’, but this is hardly applicable to a second not uncommon form which has a rectangular body of oblong section supported by four legs. 1958 W. Willetts Chinese Art I. iii. 138 The Han dictionary Êrh ya defines the ting as a li with solid legs. 1959 G. Savage Antique Collector's Handbk. 40 The ting is a bowl of hemispherical shape with three legs and two upstanding handles. 1973 Genius of China 12/1 In 219 BC the Ch'in emperor tried to recover from a river the nine ting tripods on which the power of the Chou king over his feudal subordinates was said to depend. |
▪ III. ting, v.
(tɪŋ)
[Echoic. Cf. ping; also obs. Du. tinghe, tanghen ‘tintinare’.]
1. trans. To cause (a small bell or the like) to emit a ringing note; in quot. 1607, to try (a coin) by ringing in order to test its genuineness.
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xviii. xii. (W. de W.), Wyth betynge of basynes, tyngynge & tynkynge of tymbres they [bees] ben comforted & callyd to the hyues. 1552 Berks. Ch. Goods (1879) 39 A bell used to be tynged before dede corses. 1607 R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders 131 They sticke not to ting and peize the money. 1611 Cotgr., Tintiner, to ting, or toll, a bell. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Ting, to ring a small bell. |
b. to ting bees, to make a ringing sound, as with a key and shovel, when bees swarm, to induce them to settle: cf. quot. 1495 in 1; also tang v.2 4, ring v.2 10 b.
| 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. i. (1623) 3 Tinging of swarmes to make them come downe. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia s.v., ‘To ting bees’, is to collect them together, when they swarm, by the ancient music of the warming-pan and the key of the kitchen-door. |
c. To announce (a person) by ‘ringing in’ (see ring v.2 7 c). rare.
| 1880 Hardy Trumpet-Major II. xxiii. 157 ‘There, they be tinging in the passon!’ exclaimed David,..as the bells changed from chiming all three together to a quick beating of one. |
2. intr. Of a bell, a metal or glass vessel, or the like: To emit a high-pitched ringing note when struck, to ring.
| 1562 T. Phaer æneid. ix. D d j, His helmet tincgling tings. 1607 Rowlands Diog. Lanth. 21 If we but heare a Bell to ting..Into a hole we straite may skippe. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. v, Bowls [began] to ting, glasses to ring. 1840 [see tinging vbl. n.]. |
b. trans. To announce (an hour) by tinging; to ring or strike (the hour). Also ting out.
| 1888 F. W. Robinson Youngest Miss Green III. 78 The clock..then tinged out ‘One’. |
3. intr. To make a ringing sound with a bell, etc. Also to ting it.
| 1605 R. Armin Foole upon F. (1880) 8 They tinged with a knife at the bottome of a glasse. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 492 Often tinging with a little Bell of Siluer. a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. Prol. 6 There did he..ting it, ring it, tingle it, towl it. 1872 T. Hardy Under Greenw. Tree v. i. II. 186 So he jist stopped to ting to 'em [bees] and shake 'em. |
▪ IV. ting
see thing n.2