ringy-dingy

• ringie dingie, ringie-dingie, ringy dingy

From rhyming ring and ding with -y. Used by comedian Lily Tomlin imitating a telephone operator (“one ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingies …”).

ringy-dingy (plural ringy-dingies) (colloquial)

1. A telephone ring.
   • 1994 September 20, Linda Ballou, “BODY WATCH : Twice Stung, Thrice Shy […]”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 October 2025:

     I stumbled to my car to call the barn owner. After many ringy-dingies, I gave up.

   • 2009 March 11, David Pogue, “One Number to Ring Them All”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 April 2009:

     Each time you answered a call, while the caller was still hearing “one ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingies,” you heard a recording offering four ways to handle the call: “Press 1 to accept, 2 to send to voice mail, 3 to listen in on voice mail, or 4 to accept and record the call.”

   • 2016 May 23, Emma Allen, “Fortunate”, in The New Yorker‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 May 2016:

     Her “first significant wig,” she said, was for Ernestine, the snorting, power-drunk telephone-operator character (“One ringy-dingy!”) made famous on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.”

2. A call; a ring (an instance of calling someone on the telephone).
   • 1996 April 16, Puter, “(no subject)”, in alt.romance.chat‎^[4] (Usenet), archived from the original on 2 October 2025:

     Andrew Vautier made a ringy-dingy...
     > Give me a call!
     Give me a house!

   • 2000 July 27, Zabana Brandon, “OT: I just met a *real* sweetheart!!”, in alt.tv.star-trek.voyager‎^[5] (Usenet), archived from the original on 2 October 2025:

     Give me a ringy-dingy or a number to call and you'll see!! ;)

   • 2006 November 7, Boron Elgar, “Raise Your Hand If You Got A Call From George W.Bush Today”, in alt.fan.cecil-adams‎^[6] (Usenet), archived from the original on 2 October 2025:

     I had a pant load of calls on my answering machine today. I truly appreciated Dubya taking time out from his busy war to give me a ringy-dingy.