ping

Partly onomatopoeic, and partly continuing Middle English pingen (“to push, shove, pierce, stab, prod, goad, urge, feel remorse, incite”), from Old English pyngan (“to prick”). Compare English pang.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

ping (plural pings)

1. A high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.

   My car used to make an odd ping, but after the last oil change it went away.

2. (submarine navigation) A pulse of high-pitched or ultrasonic sound whose echoes provide information about nearby objects and vessels.

   The submarine sent out a ping and got an echo from a battleship.

3. (networking) A packet which a remote host is expected to echo, thus indicating its presence.

   The network is overloaded from all the pings going out.

4. (text messaging, Internet) An email or other message sent requesting acknowledgement.

   I sent a ping to the insurance company to see if they received our claim.

5. (networking) Latency.
   • 2000 April 4, "CaPRubberchecks" (username), Low-Ping servers...YIKES! in alt.games.starsiege.tribes, Usenet
   • 2000 November 8, "the_mad...@my-deja.com", HL DM with a low ping......., in alt.games.half-life, Usenet:

     "You low ping c**t, you only win cos of your ping!"

     > > And other such insights into why I was winning.

   • 2001 August 2, Asha, high ping in cs low ping outside cs??, in alt.games.half-life.counterstrike, Usenet
   • 2002 June 24, "drip" (username), Bandwidth - Lagtime, in alt.games.unreal.tournament, Usenet:

     Your best bet to negate lag is to go to a server using the zero ping mutator. This will compensate for your high ping when using a pistol, sniper or […]

6. (Wiktionary and WMF jargon) A notification.

• beep
• peep
• ping pong
• ACK
• heartbeat

ping (third-person singular simple present pings, present participle pinging, simple past and past participle pinged)

1. To make a high-pitched, short and somewhat sharp sound.

   My car was pinging until my last oil change.

2. (submarine navigation) To emit a signal and then listen for its echo in order to detect objects.
3. (networking) To send a packet in order to determine whether a host is present, particularly by use of the ping utility.

   I'm pinging their server.

   The server pings its affiliates periodically.

4. (networking) To send a network packet to another host and receive an acknowledgement in return.

   I can't ping their server: perhaps it's been switched off.

5. To send an email or other message to someone in hopes of eliciting a response.

   I'll ping the insurance company again to see if they've received our claim.

6. (colloquial) To flick.

   I pinged the crumb off the table with my finger.

7. (colloquial, sports, intransitive) To bounce.

   The ball pinged off the wall and came hurtling back.

8. (colloquial, sports, transitive) To cause something to bounce.
   • 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC‎:

     Charging through the Bolton midfield to find a free moment, Essien then pinged the ball into the space into which Drogba was intelligently running.

9. (colloquial, sports) To call out audibly.
   • 2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport‎:

     However, after an inside pass from Moody to Tom Croft and a surge from the England blind-side, number eight James Haskell was eventually pinged from in front of the posts for not releasing.

10. (Wiktionary and WMF jargon) To send another user a notification when commenting on a talk page.

• poll networking

• NigP

ping

1. Nonstandard spelling of pīng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of píng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of pìng.

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.