Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US prison) one who fakes a fit to be excused work.

1926

Times Despatch (Richmond, VA) 17 Oct. 7/7: Wing-ding [...] — one who feigns sickness to escape work .

2. a lit. or fig. fit, e.g. epileptic or as suffered by a withdrawing narcotics user; usu. in phr. with vb. of propulsion, e.g. chuck/throw.

1927		H. Yenne ‘Prison Lingo’ in AS II:6 281: Wing-ding — A false illness or fit.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 146: I’d throw a ‘whingding’ (fit) if you showed me that much.
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 127/2: wing-ding. A feigned fit or spasm.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 213: She threw a wingding. Looked like a mild epileptic fit to me.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 316: wing-ding. A feigned fit or spasm thrown by an addict in an attempt to obtain drugs.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 29: Chuck a wingding – Of a drug addict, to feign an illness, fit, or spasm, in order to win sympathy and wangle a narcotic prescription from a physician.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 160: pull a wingding [...] 1. to simulate a spasm or mental relapse to draw sympathy from others 2. to go berserk; to pull a scene, have a fit.
1987		J. Ciardi Good Words 294: He threw a real whingding when his wife left him.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 51: She threw one of her dust bunny wingdings.

3. a fake fit, ‘thrown’ by a prisoner in the hope of convincing authorities that he should be placed in the more comfortable surroundings of a mental ward.

1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 336/2: whing ding, n. A simulation of illness for some deception, a sham: ‘he pulled a whing ding.’.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 823: wing ding – A farcical method of a prison inmate of impressing authorities that he is mentally deranged, so that he may be placed in Nut Alley (Detention Hospital) where he can scoff the best viands in the joint.
1987		J. Ciardi Good Words 294: Whingding [...] A seizure, a fit. Especially one feigned in order to avoid work.

4. (orig. US, also wang-dang) a boisterous, noisy party.

1949		Sat. Eve. Post 5 Mar. 10/3: We are not sure just what the Festival is to be, but some sort of native whingding no doubt, with exhibits, probably.
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 82: We’ll give your old man a sleeping pill and throw a wingding.
1959		(con. WWII) B. Cochrell Barren Beaches of Hell 42: It’s my birthday, so a bunch of my cobbers is throwin’ a whing-ding.
1960		I. Fleming For Your Eyes Only (1962) 177: Mr Krest gave orders for what he called a ‘wingding’. ‘Gotta celebrate, Liz.’.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 101: A real family wingding.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 79: Duke had arranged a party. ‘We had a wingding,’ Mother says, ‘and I felt emotional.’.
1988		(con. 1920s) D.D. Harrison Black Pearls 115: Wallace was the fourth child of the religious, hardworking couple who neither indulged in nor approved of the Saturday night ‘wang dangs’.
1989		(con. 1965) M. Berent Rolling Thunder (1990) 64: Dad threw a bit of a wingding for me at the Screen in Vegas before I left.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 202: ‘We’re having a little wingding [...] and you’re all invited’.
2000		B. Wiprud Sleep with the Fishes 53: A notch up from beer slides at a frat wing-ding.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 143: ‘[Y]ou attended [Communist party] cell wingdings up to the late ’40s’.

5. an outburst of emotion or temper; thus as v., to have an emotional outburst.

1936		(ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 58: Finally the man’s whing-dings became so pronounced that I went down to the cell-house guard and demanded a move.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Heads You lose’ in Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 And a little later, Dave Donaldson was throwing a wing-ding in his private office.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 81: And drunks are cunning. He’d be certain to pick a time when I wasn’t around to throw his wingding.
1966		C. Himes Run Man Run (1969) 186: I must have pitched a wingding that night.
1975		K. Willey Ghosts of the Big Country 221: Blackfellows belted tapsticks / And danced the corroboree for us; / And all the bush things took to heel / At the rattatan and din, / As we wingdinged on the Mary.

6. a dramatic, noisy event.

1957		C. Himes Imabelle 127: She was at the whing-ding up on the river tonight.
1957		J. Blake letter 30 Aug. in Joint (1972) 105: I had the feeling of being an acolyte at a demonolatrous wing-ding.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 129: [as 1957].
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 261: Our annual wingding [...] A parade, picnics, and a carnival the next two nights.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 290: A ‘broncobustin’, calf-ropin’, steer-wrestlin’ wingding of a ro-day-o.’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 19 June 20: Greenwich Park is currently being spruced up for the millennium wing-ding.

7. an unstable, crazy person.

1966		C. Himes Run Man Run (1969) 104: It might have been something to do with the numbers, a religious wingding.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 212: The square chump sure is a whingding.

8. a sexual encounter; thus as v., to have a sexual encounter.

1961		R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 75: An here we go, jes a-wingdingin something awful, jes a-drivin home like we boff gonna flip.
1999		Guardian Guide 10–16 July 13: Margi, unwittingly returning home just after one of Greg and Susannah’s wing-dings.