dido
noun
a mischievous trick; prank; antic.
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dido
1 American
[dahy-doh]
/ ˈdaɪ doʊ /
noun
Informal.
-
didos,
plural
-
didoes
plural
-
a mischievous trick; prank; antic.
-
a bauble or trifle.
Dido
2
American
[dahy-doh]
/ ˈdaɪ doʊ /
noun
-
Phoenician Elissa. Classical Mythology. a queen of Carthage who killed herself when abandoned by Aeneas.
-
a female given name.
Dido
1
British
/ ˈdaɪdəʊ /
noun
dido
2
British
/ ˈdaɪdəʊ /
noun
Dido
Cultural
Discover More
Dido is an image of the unhappy or unrequited lover.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dido
First recorded in 1800–10; origin uncertain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
We'll go there together, Dave, and cut a dido.'
From Menotah A Tale of the Riel Rebellion by Ernest G. Henham
That would be a pretty dido, I must say!
From The Girls of Central High on Lake Luna or, The Crew That Won by Gertrude W. Morrison
I shouldn't have cut such an everlasting dido if he hadn't been monkeying around.
From Menotah A Tale of the Riel Rebellion by Ernest G. Henham
Perhaps you don't think she means it when she goes to every 'tea' and 'recital' and 'at home' and crazy dido from here to Beersheba and back.
From Cap'n Dan's Daughter by Joseph Crosby Lincoln
The Buffalo doth proudly prance, Whenever the hunters will give him a chance, And over the prairies he leads them a dance, Oh! fiddledy, diddledy, dido!
From Five Mice in a Mouse-trap by the Man in the Moon. by Addie Ledyard
Her name wasn’t Dido but Elishat, transcribed by the ancient Greeks as Elissa.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
A senior lecturer at Cardiff University, Ms. MacDonald opens with the historical Dido, who seems to have been born in the ninth century B.C. in the city of Tyre, in present-day Lebanon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Nora’s heroism, tentatively discovered only after she’s hit rock bottom, is in her refusal to follow in the self-destructive footsteps of Dido.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
Hanson shares an anecdote about how, when he was younger, his parents bought a car for their dog, Dido.
From BBC ● May 13, 2024
Nevertheless Dido learned and she sent for him.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Nevertheless, the committee could still be expected to cut didoes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Plainly the people wanted no economic didoes, no flagrant change in the status quo.
From Time Magazine Archive
Oldsters worried at first that the children would indulge in more didoes than devotions, but they were soon impressed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Despite his misgivings about its didoes, he is fantastically proud of the city, and works 14 hours a day at his trying job.
From Time Magazine Archive
Our youngest uncle, Billy, was not old enough to join in their didoes.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
Fibber's garrulous tarradiddles, the broguish comeuppances Molly metes out to him, the dated didos of his numerous stooges, are as familiar as the pattern of the living-room rug.
From Time Magazine Archive
San Francisco suspected that the Southern Pacific's rate-cutting didos might have something to do with the road's scheme to sell its ferry franchise to the State Toll Bridge Authority for some $3,750,000.
From Time Magazine Archive
Old Johnson fans needed no explanation of such zany didos; Johnson was simply dramatizing his crusade against folks who eat popcorn In theaters.
From Time Magazine Archive
As always, Arlene's personal didos were gay, frolicsome and deceptively casual.
From Time Magazine Archive
So I just stood there with monkeys, dollars, ponies, and .22s running around in my head, and waited while Grandpa cut all kinds of didos.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
