Pronunciations (2)
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/zɪŋ/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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zɪŋ
Noun
A short high-pitched humming sound, such as that made by a bullet or vibrating string.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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He listened to the zing and echo on the line, the chatter of distant operators, the patches of Morse from aircraft and ships at sea, quickly suppressed.
I heard a zing close to my head and looked up again. Five or six men were lined up on the deck above me with rifles shooting at the shark.
A witty insult or derogatory remark.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
Zest or vitality.
Usage- Uncountable
- Examples
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To accompany a meal, the fresh Italian lager Poretti is perfect; Erdinger Weisbier, a wheat beer from Germany, is full of zing;
Pleasant or exciting flavour of food.
Usage- Slang
- Uncountable
Verb
To move very quickly, especially while making a high-pitched hum.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
We are all a second or two older than an astronaut who has been zinging around the Earth at 18000 miles per hour, because of his or her greater speed and the lack of gravity.
When the caller identified herself as from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle my heart zinged. I heard the words we had yearned for since March: They had found a donor marrow, mismatched at one antigen, that might work for Jane.
To address a witty insult or comeback to.
Usage- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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Goomba: Ouch that was cold! Paragoomba: “What, you’re too good for us? Come off it, sister! Spike Goomba: “Nobody zings us like that! Nobody! Let’s get ’em!”
To make a zinging noise or sound.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Outside, the crickets and the tree-frogs started to zing and tinkle and the great hawkmoths came to the wire-netting across the windows and clutched it, gazing with trembling ecstasy at the two oil lamps that hung from the cross-beams inside.
Interjection
A high pitched humming sound.
Usage- onomatopoeic
- Examples
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Something inside of me started a symphony / Zing! Went the strings of my heart
Used to acknowledge a witty comeback, a zinger.
Usage- US usage
- Slang
- Examples
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Zing! The joke had rebounded back on the one who started it. "Ouch!" Mama Jane winced ruefully. We all dissolved in laughter at the good-natured repartee.
Noun
a brief high-pitched buzzing or humming sound
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the zing of the passing bullet
the activeness of an energetic personality
- Broader terms