Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (prizefighting) a hard blow or lively exchange of blows.

1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 31 May 1/6: Ding-dong. Noon pinked Massey artistically, but he would not be denied [...] Ding-dong was the order of the day.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 24 Oct. 3/2: Egan tried a fearsome upper cut ding song.
1862		Golden Age (Queenbeyan, NSW) 28 Aug. 3/4: Simpkins [was] the ‘Corinthian Patron’ who found the ‘blunt’ for the country yokel Ding Dong Hammer, when the Slashington Pet challenged the pugilistic world.

2. a serious argument, a fight .

1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Mar. 6/3: At it they go; a regular ding-dong, no time nor rules taken notice of. They fight five rounds.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 260: Afternoon. Yes, she was back. To the old dingdong again.
1935		G. Ingram Cockney Cavalcade 142: I’ve been having a ding-dong with my old man.
1948		‘Josephine Tey’ Franchise Affair (1954) 260: Well, from then on it was just a fight. [...] I tore that silly negligée off her, and it was ding-dong till she tripped over one of her mules [...] and went sprawling’.
1964		H.S. Thompson letter 29 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 435: Until you can swallow the real dingdong – my best advice would be to forgo Mailer’s technique.
1969		R. Rendell Best Man To Die (1981) 93: They had a bit of a ding-dong, Mr. and Mrs.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 19: Ding dong: An imprompu and spontaneous bout of fisticuffs involving a large number of participants of either sex.
1999		Indep. Rev. 12 July 1: We have quite a ding-dong about whether animals can suffer as humans can.
2000		Z. Smith White Teeth 20: If he’d played his cards right instead of starting a ding-dong, he might have had free love and bare breasts all over the gaff.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Ding dong - dispute, brawl.

3. (orig. Aus.) an automobile, often stolen.

1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Oct. 1/1: A motor-driving professional man has a new lurk for evading the vigilant [because] the presence of his ding-dong outside the pub gave its owner’s whereabouts away.
2013		Stix & M. Dargg ‘It’s Cracking’ 🎵 Fuck the opps, in that dinger whip.
2015		67 ‘Live Corn’ 🎵 3 litre ding-dong skidding round the hill / Swammy on deck and we’re lurking for a kill.
2015		150 ‘4 Door Truck’ 🎵 Got my young G's out in the dinger skeng moving like mad Max (skeng).
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Ding dong - cheap car.
2022		Digga D. ‘It’s a Gamble’ 🎵 Mission complete, I’ma bun out the dinger.

4. a noisy party or other gathering .

1922		Joyce Ulysses 159: Gasballs spinning about, crossing each other, passing. Same old dingdong always.
1930		(con. 1910–20s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 118: Ding dong ... sing-song, a party.
1943		Mass-Observation Report on Juvenile Drinking 11: A girl says to another boy and girl (all about 18) ...he’s home on leave soon. We’ll have to arrange a ding dong somewhere.
1958		F. Norman in Sun. Graphic 20 July in Norman’s London (1969) 19: I [...] asked the governor [...] what he thought about the annual ding-dong.
1976		(ref. to 1930s–70s) R. Barnes Coronation Cups and Jam Jars.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 100: Let’s make a ding-dong at Dave’s pad to celebrate this plan.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 18: Big up to everyone who went clubbing on NYEY2K and made it such a mental booyaka ding dong.