Dingus
name, noun, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A gadget, device, or object whose name is either unknown, forgotten, or omitted for the purpose of humor. Canada, South-Africa, US, informal
""If anybody should come in, and catch you with your breeches, as it were, down on the floor, all you have to do is to drink the water, wrap the rubber dingus around you, and tell them to “lay on Macduff.”"
- 2 A foolish, incompetent, or silly person. Canada, US, derogatory, endearing, humorous, informal, sometimes
"I just lost my keys again. Now I feel like a dingus."
- 3 The penis. slang, vulgar
""He got mad at me because his dingus wouldn’t come up for him — too drunk, I guess. […]"
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples""I like the guy, but his grammar is atrocious. Just look!" "Uh, that's spelling, you dingus.""
Etymology
Probably of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Dutch dinges (“thingamajig, thingy; whatshisname, whatshername”), ding (“thing”). Probably also partly a borrowing from Afrikaans in view of its South African occurrence. The spelling dingus is remodeled to look like a Latin word ending in -us.
Probably an Americanized spelling of German Dinges.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.