Meanings
donner1
present singular third person donners · participle present donnering · participle past donnered · past donnered
- South AfricaslangTo beat up; clobber; thrash.
They went into the pub and started a fight. One that was just bad enough for someone to call the boere. When the gattas arrived they got donnered for their trouble.
2005, Al Lovejoy, Acid Alex, Zebra Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 1671 more example
Ag pleez Deddy won't you take us to the wrestling / We wanna see an ou called Sky High Lee / When he fights Willie Liebenberg / There's gonna be a murder / 'Cos Willie's gonna donner that blerrie yankee
1962, Jeremy Taylor, “Ag Pleez Deddy”
donner2
plural donners
- One who dons (something).
Early donners of dinner-jackets, décolleté, and toppers were about Park Avenue.
1932 March, Philip Wylie, “Angela regrets an Invitation: A story of the Wild Wallaces”, in Edwin Balmer, editor, Redbook Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The McCall Company, page 73, column 15 more examples
O sweet little wearers of round hats. O dainty donners of Mauve silks and sprigged muslins—I hear a voice saying—there was a time when all the ladies of Rome, with perfumes and fans, went daily to the Colosseum to see gigantic slaves chop each other to pieces; […]
1861 June 29, “Old Rome in Crystal”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All the Year Round. […], volume V, number 114, London: […] Messrs. Chapman and Hall, […], page 324, column 2“Gathered in circle, / With clangour of armour, / Our youth struck the mighty / Donners of armlets: / Limbs dead and bloody / Glutted the death-birds. / Who shall avenge now / The mighty belt-wearer?”
1871, Robert [Williams] Buchanan, The Land of Lorne, Including the Cruise of the “Tern” to the Outer Hebrides. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], page 186Tony Rossitto, grand opera tenor, who is in the ranks at Camp Sherman, is spending the week here and has been permitted to sing at the barracks and Broadway Theater. He is beiing^([sic]) billed about the town as “The Soldier Caruso From Camp Sherman” and “The Fighter With the Golden Throat.” Mr. Rossitto was formerly a member of the Chicago Grand Opera Company. His beautiful tenor has won many friends for him both among his fellow donners of khaki and those civilians who have heard him.
1918 August 31, “[The Concert & Opera Field] Singer in the Ranks”, in The Billboard, volume XXX, number 35, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, page 20, column 3Seven recruits were accepted by the United States army at the Transportation building Wednesday. Of the seven new donners of the khaki, six were old service men.
1919 July 3, “Seven Recruits Join Army on Wednesday”, in The Atlanta Constitution, volume LII, number 18, Atlanta, Ga., page twenty“Happy are only the donners of the waist-cloth whose minds always delight in meditating on the texts of the Upanishads.”
1922, Yogiraja’s Disciple Maitreya (Buddha-Gaya), Discovery of the Universal Religion through a Comparative Theology Based on the Faiths of the Forefathers, London: W. Thacker & Co; Calcutta; Simla: Thacker, Spink & Co, page 59
Donner3
Origin
donner · verb
- Dutchdonder“thunder”
- Afrikaansdonder“thrash”
- Englishdonner
From Afrikaans donder (“thrash”), from Dutch donder (“thunder”). Doublet of thunder.
More words from Afrikaans, Dutch
Full word history & related roots →Donner · proper noun
- Dutchdonder“thunder”
- EnglishDonner
First attested in the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. Named from Dutch donder (“thunder”), and perhaps influenced by the German form Donner.
More words from Dutch
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 雷
- 雷 (Léi)reindeer of Santa Claus
Finnish Ukkonen
- Ukkonenreindeer of Santa Claus
French Tonnerre
- Tonnerrereindeer of Santa Claus
Greek Βροντή
- Βροντή (Vrontí)reindeer of Santa Claus
Italian Tuono
- Tuonoreindeer of Santa Claus
Japanese ドナー
- ドナー (Donā)reindeer of Santa Claus
Polish Profesorek
- Profesorekreindeer of Santa Claus
Portuguese Trovão
- Trovãoreindeer of Santa Claus
Spanish Trueno
- Truenoreindeer of Santa Claus
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with donner
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
donner. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/donner
“donner.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/donner. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “donner,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/donner.
Source: donner on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.