dido

[ dahy-doh ]

/ ˈdaɪ doʊ /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR dido ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural di·dos, di·does. Usually didos, didoes. Informal.

a mischievous trick; prank; antic.

a bauble or trifle.

RELATED WORDS

caper, antic, prank

Nearby words

Origin of dido

First recorded in 1800–10; origin uncertain

Definition for dido (2 of 2)

Dido

[ dahy-doh ]

/ ˈdaɪ doʊ /

noun

Phoenician Elissa. Classical Mythology. a queen of Carthage who killed herself when abandoned by Aeneas.

a female given name.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for dido

But Dido got to the loot first, and absconded with it to North Africa, where she set up her kingdom.
Virgil, Jane Austen and Other Authors Can Teach Us About Love|Maura Kelly|January 20, 2012|DAILY BEAST
No naïf or innocent, Dido knows plenty about ambition, and how heartless it can make a (hu)man.
Virgil, Jane Austen and Other Authors Can Teach Us About Love|Maura Kelly|January 20, 2012|DAILY BEAST
When Dido came to Africa she bought of the natives "as much land as could be encompassed with a bull's hide."
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1|The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
She might have posed as Dido when she learned that the noble neas was dead.
The Place of Honeymoons|Harold MacGrath

Dido, perceiving this from her tower, sent her sister Anna with a last message imploring neas yet a little to delay.
Half a Hundred Hero Tales|Various
But you know, my dear friend, that showers of rain have helped lovers from the days of Dido down.
The Deputy of Arcis|Honore de Balzac
But the love of Dido for Æneas is the refined passion which is the soul of the romances and of half the poetry of modern times.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 354, April 1845|Various

British Dictionary definitions for dido (1 of 2)

dido

/ (ˈdaɪdəʊ) /

noun plural -dos or -does (usually plural) informal

an antic; prank; trick

Word Origin for dido

C19: originally US: of uncertain origin

British Dictionary definitions for dido (2 of 2)

Dido

/ (ˈdaɪdəʊ) /

noun

classical myth a princess of Tyre who founded Carthage and became its queen. Virgil tells of her suicide when abandoned by her lover Aeneas

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for dido

dido

"prank, caper," 1807, American English slang, perhaps from the name of the Carthaginian queen in the "Aeneid." Usually in phrase to cut didoes.

Culture definitions for dido

Dido

[ (deye-doh) ]

In Roman mythology, the founder and queen of Carthage in north Africa. She committed suicide in grief over the departure of her lover, the hero Aeneas.

Note

Dido is an image of the unhappy or unrequited lover.