dido

[dahy-doh]

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.

Origin of dido

First recorded in 1800–10; origin uncertain

Dido

[dahy-doh]

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

Related Words for dido

caper, antic, prank

Examples from the Web for dido

Contemporary Examples of 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
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

Historical Examples of dido

I ought to be a Dido and Niobe and Cassandra rolled into one.
It Happened in Egypt
C. N. Williamson
I wonder if it were very un-soldierly to slip it off and tie it about Dido's neck.
Micah Clarke
Arthur Conan Doyle
Dido and Jacko are great friends, and play together a great deal.
Harper's Young People, June 29, 1880
Various
Tink, tink, a - tink - a - tink, tink - a - tink - a - dido!
Tom Burke Of "Ours", Volume I (of II)
Charles James Lever
He was one of our best men, and captain of the forecastle on board the Dido.
The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido
Henry Keppel

British Dictionary definitions for dido

dido

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

an antic; prank; trick

Word Origin for dido

C19: originally US: of uncertain origin

Dido

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

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

dido in Culture

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.