Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US black) the penis.

1929		Bessie Smith ‘I’m Wild About That Thing’ 🎵 I’m wild about that thing, gee, I like that ting-a-ling, / Kiss me like you mean it, I’m wild about that thing.
1936		Lil Johnson ‘Press My Button (Ring My Bell)’ 🎵 And I’ll have that thing, / That thing-a-ling, / Just press my button, give my bell a ring.
1953		Bartholomew & Rhodes ‘My Ding-a-Ling’ 🎵 Have a little girl, her name is Sing / She like to play with my ding-a-ling.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 222: All you have to worry ’bout is one lil’ ding-a-thing when you got a boy . . . but when you got a girl, you got to worry ’bout all the ding-a-things on the block!
1974		J. Lahr Hot to Trot 18: I was a six-penny man; he can’t even balance three on his ding-a-ling.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 175: ‘Simple Simon Says’, ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’, ‘My Ding-a-Ling’.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 50: You’re sick in the head. A normal man wouldn’t be shaking his ding-a-ling like that.
2001		Guardian G2 4 June 5: Aids won’t be eliminated by vulcanised rubber on every ding-a-ling and prayer breakfasts in the White House.

2. (US) a telephone.

1971

R. Woodley Dealer 5: Late one afternoon the telephone rang. ‘You know who this is? I can’t talk problems, not over the ding-a-ling.