noun · rare

dingus

dingus · dinguses

A gadget, device, or object whose name is either unknown, forgotten, or omitted for…A gadget, device, or object whose name is either unknown, forgotten, or omitted for the purpose of humor.

/ˈdɪŋɡəs/

» "I like the guy, but his grammar is atrocious. Just look!" "Uh, that's spelling, you dingus."

Meaning

3 senses

(Canada, South Africa, US, informal)A gadget, device, or object whose name is either unknown, forgotten, or omitted for the purpose of humor.
(Canada, US, derogatory, endearing, humorous, informal, sometimes)A foolish, incompetent, or silly person.
I just lost my keys again. Now I feel like a dingus.
(slang, vulgar)The penis.

Examples

1 sentences

"I like the guy, but his grammar is atrocious. Just look!" "Uh, that's spelling, you dingus."
CC0 · Tatoeba · hecko · C2Open on Tatoeba Report a problem

Origin

Probably of multiple origins. Partially a borrowing from Dutch dinges (“thingamajig, thing

Probably of multiple origins. Partially a borrowing from Dutch dinges (“thingamajig, thingy; whatshisname, whatshername”), ding (“thing”). Probably also partially a borrowing from Afrikaans in view of its South African occurrence. The spelling dingus is a pseudo-Latinism to look like a Latin word ending in -us.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source