ping

plural pings

1. A high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.

   My car used to make an odd ping, but after the last oil change it went away.

   1 more example

   With a sudden ping, there was a rabbit there in the black labyrinth with him[.]

   1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 89

2. submarine navigationA pulse of high-pitched or ultrasonic sound whose echoes provide information about nearby objects and vessels.

   The submarine sent out a ping and got an echo from a battleship.

3. computingA packet which a remote host is expected to echo, thus indicating its presence.

   The network is overloaded from all the pings going out.

4. InternetAn email or other message sent requesting acknowledgement.

   I sent a ping to the insurance company to see if they received our claim.

5. computingLatency.

   "You low ping c**t, you only win cos of your ping!" > > And other such insights into why I was winning.

   2000 November 8, the_mad...@my-deja.com, “HL DM with a low ping.......”, in alt.games.half-life (Usenet)

   1 more example

   Your best bet to negate lag is to go to a server using the zero ping mutator. This will compensate for your high ping when using a pistol, sniper or […]

   2002 June 24, drip, “Bandwidth - Lagtime”, in alt.games.unreal.tournament (Usenet)

6. video gamesA means of highlighting a feature on the game map so that allied players can see it.
7. A notification.

present singular third person pings · participle present pinging · past pinged · nonstandard past pang · participle past pinged · nonstandard participle past pang · nonstandard participle past pung

1. To make a high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.

   My car was pinging until my last oil change.

   1 more example

   The microwave pinged. He forked the steak onto the plate and set the timer again.

   2013, Francine Rivers, And the Shofar Blew

2. submarine navigationTo emit a signal and then listen for its echo in order to detect objects.
3. computingTo send a packet in order to determine whether a host is present, particularly by use of the ping utility.

   I'm pinging their server.

   2 more examples

   The server pings its affiliates periodically.

   Just because you cannot ping a server or telnet to it does not mean that the server is down or inaccessible.

   2008, Allan Reid, Jim Lorenz, Working at a Small-to-Medium Business or ISP, Cisco Press, →ISBN

4. broadlyTo send an email or other message to someone in hopes of eliciting a response.

   I'll ping the insurance company again to see if they've received our claim.

   2 more examples

   If any deeper etymology is required, Arthur, don't ping me; I'll ping you.

   2001 November 25, William Safire, “On Language; The Arab Street”, in New York Times

   If certain attendees don't actively participate and that's a surprise to you, ping them an email or private chat message and ask what's happening for them.

   2014, Jessica Pryce-Jones, Julia Lindsay, Running Great Meetings and Workshops For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 294

5. colloquialTo flick.

   I pinged the crumb off the table with my finger.

6. colloquialintransitiveTo bounce.

   The ball pinged off the wall and came hurtling back.

   1 more example

   At that moment a rifle cracked. The bullet pinged against the railings and whirred off on a ricochet.

   1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 101

7. colloquialtransitivehobbiesTo cause something to bounce.

   Charging through the Bolton midfield to find a free moment, Essien then pinged the ball into the space into which Drogba was intelligently running.

   2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC

8. colloquialhobbiesTo call out audibly.

   However, after an inside pass from Moody to Tom Croft and a surge from the England blind-side, number eight James Haskell was eventually pinged from in front of the posts for not releasing.

   2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport

9. AustraliacolloquialTo penalize.

   Gary Ablett was pinged for holding the ball and gave away a free kick.

10. ambitransitiveslangTo trigger a person's gaydar; to look or act obviously homosexual.

    Bob has two kids, but he really pings.

    1 more example

    Plus, he pings her gaydar big time, although there's nothing obvious about it in his comportment.

    2022, Maxim Jakubowski, The Book of Extraordinary Femme Fatale Stories

plural Pings

1. A surname.
2. A female given name.