ditto

plural dittos · plural dittoes

1. That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise.

   […]a spacious table in the centre, and a variety of smaller dittos in the corners:[…]

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Comprising a Brief Description of the Company at the Peacock Assembled; and a Tale Told by a Bagman”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 134

   4 more examples

   [...] they entered a dismal-looking parlour, whose brick-red walls and ditto curtains were scantily lighted by a single lamp, though it was of the last new patent—[…]

   1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 127

   Well say he's got the constitution of a dinosaur, recuperative powers ditto. And as we both know, I'm a bright young medic with a miraculous touch. Well why then, when I returned, there wasn't a trace of that wound on his forehead. Not even a bruise. It was like he had never been injured.

   1967, Star Trek, The Alternative Factor, season 1, episode 27, DeForest Kelley (actor)

   The opening shot of "Crystal Skull" shows the playful side of director Steven Spielberg, who seems to have a weak spot for cute animals. See "AI Artificial Intelligence" for Exhibit A. Ditto for executive producer George Lucas. See "Return of the Jedi" for Exhibit B.

   2008 May 22, “New 'Indiana' film whips up plenty of thrills”, in Hudson (MA) MetroWest Daily News

   He has created for himself a honed, primed-for-victory body and is working hard on a ditto mind.

   2009 July 3, “Andy Murray: easy to admire, but can we learn to love him?”, in Times Online

2. The ditto mark, 〃; a symbol, represented by two apostrophes, inverted commas, or quotation marks (" "), indicating that the item preceding is to be repeated.

   Synonyms: ditto mark, ditto sign, do., do

3. historicalin pluralA suit of clothes of the same color throughout.
4. uncommoneducationA copy made by (run off by) a ditto machine (especially, a worksheet thus reproduced).

   Please run off twenty-four dittos of this assignment for my students.

   1 more example

   Mr. Zappadia gave each student a ditto of a black-and-white cow.

   2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 227

5. broadlyA copy; an imitation.

   "You've got to look good to feel good," she announces, a ditto of television slogans.

   1991, N. Romano-Benner with S. Murphy, “Convoking the muses of Cuenca”, in Americas, volume 43, number 1, page 6

   2 more examples

   Last year, Argenta-Oreana blanked the Chiefs 23-0 in a second-round game Dee-Mack coach Jim McDonald said was "pretty much a ditto" of what transpired Saturday.

   2003 November 9, “Argenta appears unfazed”, in Herald & Review

   The intent of the policy, she said, is "not to put everybody in a ditto environment," where all are expected to look and act exactly like all others.

   2009 May 6, “Brunswick school hopes to be model for uniforms”, in Myrtle Beach Sun News

1. not comparableAs said before, likewise.

   The inflationary effect of injecting $1 billion into the economy could be dire; ditto the impact on the tumbling bolivar of treating foreign reserves as if they were the government's piggy-bank.

   2004 January 15, “Smash and grab”, in The Economist

   1 more example

   Some of the players were concerned about what the future held for them – given that one of the measures involved Chelsea not being able to operate in the transfer market or offer new contracts. Ditto many members of staff.

   March 11 2022, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian

present singular third person dittos · participle present dittoing · participle past dittoed · past dittoed

1. transitiveTo repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc.

   The Communists believed that Prakasam, the Prime Minister, never tried to check the bureaucracy but dittoed every action of the corrupt officials and police.

   1989, K. K. N. Kurup, Agrarian struggles in Kerala

   Synonyms: ape, echo

2. USambitransitiveTo make a copy using a ditto machine.

   But they were all purple, Dittoed—worn, torn, stained with coffee.

   1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 55

   1 more example

   I was going to join a commune of my friends. I sort of issued a declaration of independence which I dittoed up and put in everybody's mail box in the department.

   1976 April 26, Jil Clark, Julia Penelope, Susan Wolfe, “The Politics of Language”, in Gay Community News, page 8

1. Used as an expression of agreement with what another person has said, or to indicate that what they have said equally applies to the person being addressed.

   I'm really busy today! —Ditto!

   1 more example

   "Besides, if I'm only a sort of thing in his dream, what are you, I should like to know?" "Ditto," said Tweedledum. "Ditto, ditto!" cried Tweedledee.

   1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Tweedledum and Tweedledee”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 82