▪ I. dingle, n.
(ˈdɪŋg(ə)l)
[Of uncertain origin. A single example meaning ‘deep hollow, abyss’ is known in 13th c.; otherwise, the word appears to have been only in dialectal use till the 17th c., when it began to appear in literature. In the same sense dimble is known from the 16th c. Dimble and dingle might be phonetic doublets: cf. cramble and crangle.]
A deep dell or hollow; now usually applied (app. after Milton) to one that is closely wooded or shaded with trees; but, according to Ray and in mod. Yorkshire dialect, the name of a deep narrow cleft between hills.
| a 1240 Sowles Warde in Cott. Hom. 263 His runes ant his domes þe derne beoð ant deopre þen eni sea dingle [= abyss of the sea: cf. Ps. xxxv. 6 Vulg. Judicia tua abyssus multa]. 1630 Drayton Muses Elizium ii. 29 In Dingles deepe, and Mountains hore..They cumbated the tusky Boare. 1634 Milton Comus 311, I know each lane, and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood. 1636 James Iter Lanc. 357 Amongst y⊇ Dingles and y⊇ Apennines. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 14 Dingle, a small clough or valley between two steep hills. 1757 Dyer Fleece i. 134 Dingles and dells, by lofty fir embow'r'd. 1796 Southey Occas. Pieces v. Poems II. 226 Seek some sequestered dingle's coolest shade. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iii. i. 12 Both field and forest, dingle, cliff, and dell, And solitary heath, the signal knew. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Dingle, a cleft or narrow valley between two hills. |
Hence ˈdingly a., abounding in dingles, of the nature of a dingle.
| 1841 Hodgson Hist. Northmbld. ii. III. 393/2 Stonecroft burn..joins the dingly channel of the brook. 1855 Chamb. Jrnl. III. 260 Sweet dingly dells and bosky bowers. |
▪ II. dingle, v.
(ˈdɪŋg(ə)l)
[In sense 1 app. dim. of ding v.2: cf. tingle, jingle. But in the other senses mixed up with dindle and tingle.]
1. intr. To ring as a bell, or glass; to tinkle, jingle. Hence ˈdingling vbl. n.
| 1827 Praed Poems (1865) II. 220 Thus north and south, and east and west, The chimes of Hymen dingle. 1849 Knife & Fork 16 Amid the dingling of glasses. |
† 2. intr. To ring or tingle, as the ears with sound.
| 1573–80 Baret Alv. D 750 Dingle or dindle: mine eares ring, or dingle, tiniunt aures. |
3. intr. and trans. To tingle (with cold, a blow, etc.).
| 1854 R. H. Patterson Ess. Hist. & Art (1862) 18 If its particles happen to be set a-vibrating by a sharp dingling blow. 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Dingle, to tingle. ‘I've nettled mysen, an' my fingers dingles unberable.’ 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., My arm begins to dingle and feel queer. |
4. intr. To vibrate with sound; = dindle v. 2.
| 1833 Scott Wav. xliv, ‘Garring the very stane-and-lime wa's dingle wi' his screeching.’ [So later edd.; original ed., 1814, had dinnle, the Scotch form of dindle.] |