Link Centre Dictionary

dingbat

ding·bat

US/ˈdɪŋbæt/ uncommon informal slang

noun

1.

a silly empty-headed person

  • “you would be a dingbat even to try it”
  • “yet here he was with an upper class dingbat who just happened to be married to his sister”

Origin

Unknown, US mid 19th century. The word-puzzle sense comes from the board game Dingbats, which is based on these puzzles. In the sense of a miscellaneous gadget, probably influenced by dingus or its etyma.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.