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• ping-pong
  ping-pong

  verb (used with object)

  to move back and forth or transfer rapidly from one locale, job, etc., to another; switch.
• Ping-Pong
  Ping-Pong

  table tennis.

ping-pong

¹ American  

[ping-pong, -pawng] / ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ, -ˌpɔŋ /

verb (used with object)

1. to move back and forth or transfer rapidly from one locale, job, etc., to another; switch.

   The patient was ping-ponged from one medical specialist to another.

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verb (used without object)

1. to go back and forth; change rapidly or regularly; shift; bounce.

   For ten years the foreign correspondent ping-ponged between London and Paris.

Ping-Pong ² American  

[ping-pong, -pawng] / ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ, -ˌpɔŋ /

Trademark.

1. table tennis.

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Ping-Pong British  

/ ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ /

noun

1. Also called: ping pong.  another name for table tennis

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Etymology

Origin of ping-pong

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ping-pong Ping-Pong

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill is currently stuck in parliamentary "ping-pong", where legislation moves between the Commons and Lords until agreement is reached on its final wording.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

The dragging of ship anchors, a main way cables get taken out, can damage even armored cables, which are wrapped in steel wire but still roughly the diameter of a ping-pong ball.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

“Most engineers want to do the 1:00 to 3:45 with a ping-pong break and an hour lunch. That’s the way the Valley worked,” McCardel said.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 4, 2026

Timothee Chalamet had long appeared a lock for his pushy 1950s ping-pong player in "Marty Supreme."

From Barron's ● Mar. 15, 2026

‘Now fetch me the young Prince’s ping-pong table,’ Mr Tibbs whispered.

From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl

He purchased a Ping-Pong table as his first piece of furniture.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2024

“In a larger space, you can add in a Ping-Pong table, pool table, a bowling alley — really anything you can imagine and your space allows for.”

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 10, 2023

The favorite spot among players at the Ryder Cup is their team room, with its food and drinks, plenty of laughter, motivational moments and for the Americans, epic tales of Ping-Pong.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 27, 2023

From the control room next door, the animals show up as dots on the computer monitors, looking like remote-control Ping-Pong balls zinging around the room and occasionally coming to rest in odd corners.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 16, 2023

I followed him around as he showed me all the things his parents regularly bought him: toys, bicycles, go-carts, pinball machines, Ping-Pong tables, electric trains.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane