Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. noisy, exciting.

1847		Era (London) 18 July 6/2: Bill let fly his left, which bounced on the mug, and led to a sding-dong bit of business.
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.
1855		(con. 1851) Fights for the Championship 234: It was a regular ding dong, give and take mill.
1855		(con. 1852) Fights for the Championship 249: A ding dong rally followed, both geting it severely on the mouth and nose.
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Apr. 4/2: Another ding-dong round, in wich Dan closed Jemmy’s squinter.
1867		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Mar. 5/2: Terrific ding-dong exchanges ensued, the blows falling with the regularity of clockwork.
1883		T.B. Reed Willoughby Captains (1887) 143: After this a ding-dong race ensued to the finish where eventually the dark [altered to ‘light’] blues won by a foot [altered to ‘mile’].
1891		T.B. Reed Cock House Fellsgarth 114: [T]he unspeakable anguish of beholding Wally, D'Arcy, Ashby, and Fisher II [...] having a dingdong game of punt-about.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 Feb. 2/7: Doss [...] forced the pace, and some ding-dong going was witnessed.
1909		N.Z. Truth (Wellington) 28 Aug. 3/3: [headline] A Ding-Dong Amateur Go [...] Both had their ruby tapped.
1915		N.Z. Truth 9 Jan. 6/1: he fought Les for 20 rounds and lost on points after a ding-dong match.
1920		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 16 Apr. 6/3: It was a ding-dong battle up to the 11th round.
1939		J. Campbell Babe is Wise 312: You couldn’t blame ’im really for answering back, like. But I did [...] and lor, didn’t we have some ding-dong go-ins!
1936		C. Drew ‘The Rival Shows’ in Bulletin 14 Oct. 39/3: It was a ding-dong go without a doubt, and there were no beg-pardons.

2. (US) exciting, smart.

1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 151: After [...] a regular ding-dong race, I won.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 172: There was a ding-dong drive all the length of the stretch.
1901		W.S. Walker In the Blood 285: It was a ding-dong fight from start to finish.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Feb. 8/2: ‘Mary Ann’ Noble has proved himself a ding-dong captain. He’s a solid youth, without any of the usual Australian ‘Hurroo, boys!’ style.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 323: A real ding-dong sit-down dinner with free beer.
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 156: I got one of these ding-dong gramophones up, and we could have a bit of music.
1930		Louis Armstrong [song title] I’m a Ding-Dong Daddy from Duma.
1933		N. Lindsay Saturdee 235: ‘Went grand,’ he was assured. ‘A ding-dong go — best fight of the season.’.
1944		Paris News (TX) 1 Aug. 1/4: Basic words in the Australian vocabulary [...] ‘Wacko! My ding dong sheila, what a beaut you are, dinkum struth’.
1949		in N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 209: I’m a ding-dong daddy from Duma / ’N you oughta see me do my stuff.