dingbat
dingbat Lexical Profile
dingbat Game Scores & Validity
• noun
North American A foolish, scatterbrained, or eccentric person.
"He acted like a total dingbat when he forgot where he had parked his own car."
An ornamental typographical character, symbol, or spacer used in printing and digital fonts.
"The graphic designer placed a floral dingbat between the chapters of the novel."
North American A gadget, object, or thing whose name is unknown or momentarily forgotten.
"Hand me that little metal dingbat on the workbench so I can tighten the valve."
American A boxy, two- or three-story apartment building supporting overhanging upper floors on thin stilts above ground-level parking stalls, common in mid-20th-century Southern California.
"Many mid-century dingbats in Los Angeles feature decorative stucco facades and Mid-Century Modern lettering."
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the mid-19th century as American slang for a small object or missile, likely combining 'ding' (to strike) and 'bat' (a lump or piece of brick, as in 'brickbat'). The sense of a foolish person was popularized in the 1970s by the American television sitcom 'All in the Family'.