gong

plural gongs

1. entertainmentA percussion instrument consisting of a metal disk that emits a loud resonant sound when struck with a soft hammer.

   All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 110

2. UKslangA medal or award, particularly Knight Bachelor.

   1 more example

   This grooming of the national mindset explains the retention of 92 "hereditary peers" in the House of Lords: individuals who are gifted a right to sit in the nation's upper chamber and facilitate laws for no other reason than that their ancestor was the illegitimate child of some prince, or willing to spaff a few quid on the title when David Lloyd Gorge was selling of gongs for bribes.

   2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 114

3. A metal target that emits a sound when it has been hit.

   Weems picked up the hammer and hit the gong so hard that it spun right around on its hanger and fell off.

   1986, Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic, published 2022, page 184

present singular third person gongs · participle present gonging · participle past gonged · past gonged

1. intransitiveTo make the sound of a gong; to ring a gong.

   Poor old Pyecraft! He has just gonged, no doubt to order another buttered tea-cake!

   1903, H. G. Wells, The Truth About Pyecraft

2. To send a signal to, using a gong or similar device.
   1. transitiveTo halt (originally, a contestant in a talent show; later, a performer, a speaker).

      As she was gonged, host Daryl Somers swept rapidly across and salvaged an embarrassing situation by putting his arm around her and asking her whether she had children.

      1996, Stephanie Holt, Maryanne Lynch, Motherlode

   2. transitiveTo warn.

      The driver gonged the pedestrian crossing the tracks, but the pedestrian didn't stop.

3. UKslangtransitiveTo give an award or medal to.

   In 1972 he was awarded the British Red Cross Silver Medal for his services to the Red Cross. In 1978 he was 'gonged' once again, this time with the Queen's Jubilee Medal, marking the 25th year of her reign.

   1997, Peter Stone, The Lady and the President, page 147

plural gongs · alternative gang · alternative gonge · alternative goonge · alternative goung · alternative gounge · alternative gung · alternative gunge

1. obsoleteAn outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.

   The Iewe of Tewkysbury which fell into a Gonge vpon the Satyrday.

   a. 1513, Robert Fabyan, New Cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce, volume II, page xxxii

   1 more example

   A stately Toye, a preciows peece of pellfe, A gorgeous gong, a worthles painted wall...

   a. 1577, George Gascoigne, Grief of Joye, Vol. II, § lxii

2. obsoleteThe contents of an outhouse pit: shit.

1. uncountableA kind of cultivation energy, more powerful than qi.
2. uncountableAn advanced practice that cultivates such energy.

1. New South WalescolloquialWollongong.