Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a thief who throws away anything he possesses that might be incriminating, e.g. a pistol, a coat.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 174: Dingers. Dinging is a term for throwing away or hiding: – A highwayman will ding his Upper-Benjamin, his Jazey, his Sticks, his F1ogger, his Diggers, his Beater-Cases, &c. and having all these on him when he committed the robbery, is totally transformed by dinging.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 31/1: dinger, a thief who rids himself of stolen property to avoid arrest or detection.

2. a pickpocket.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: dinger a thief, a pick-pocket.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 12: Dinger – a pickpocket, or thief.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

3. (Aus./Irish/US, also ding) something exceptional, something striking; also as adj., dingery.

1909		J.W. Carr in ‘Word-List From Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:v 395: dinger, n. Anything particularly liked. ‘The lecture course this year is a dinger.’ ‘Yes, it’s a hum dinger’.
1912–16		in E. Wilson Prelude (1967) 125: a whiz / a dinger.
1913		E.L. Warnock ‘Terms of Approbation And Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 21: dingery. Splendid, just the thing. Facetious. [...] ‘That’s a dingery pen.’.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 314: This simple Decoration seems to transmogrify the Provincial and make him a Dinger.
1931		(con. 1900) L. Riggs Green Grow the Lilacs I iii: That’s a dinger, that is!
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 432: It’s [i.e. a mountain pass] a dinger to drive even in the summer.
1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 52: It’s a dinger, ain’t it?
1978		T. Hallisey Cork Holly Bough n.p.: The messenger bicycle was brand-new, a real dinger [BS].
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 26: Some priests were real dingers at giving out ashes. Dead straight, right in the centre, a real professional job.
1986		Sophiatown in M. Orkin At the Junction (1995) 147: [ref. to a woman] A real ding, ’n princess.
1997–2002		Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 dinger n. Homerun in baseball. [...] ‘Way to go man; you hit a dinger.’.
2005		Mad mag. Jan. 32: Another dinger! This stuff works great!
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Ding — (1): The offer, to those customers already inside your show, of the chance to see a really special added attraction, not advertised on the outside, for an additional fee.
2021		Central Cee ‘Tension’ 🎵 Dinger whip with the stiffest clutch.

4. (Aus.) the anus, the buttocks.

1943		J. Binning Target Area 104: ‘Dinger’, by the way, is a word born in the A.I.F. It describes, neatly, the place on which you sit.
1948		S.L. Elliott Rusty Bugles II iv: andy: You big galah. [...] keghead: In your great dinger, you rotten crawling chocko.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 161: Hell – he thinks the sun shines out of your dinger!
1966		P. Pinney Restless Men 59: ‘Righto, you fellers. Where’s your tickets?’ ‘Up our dingers,’ Loder snarled.
1972		G. Morley Jockey Rides Honest Race 209: You can get fined or sent to gaol for kicking a cat in the ding, but it’s okay if it’s a three-month-old baby [GAW4].
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 323: That was like shoving the white man’s honky racist middle-class bourgeois shit right back up his own dinger.
1980		B. Herbert No Names ... No Pack Drill 49: It’s not only ’is MPs that’s lookin’ for ’im. Our wallopers are too ... An’ they’re right up ’is dinger [GAW4].