tonga
1 Americannoun
noun
noun
-
a member of a Negroid people of S central Africa, living chiefly in Zambia and Zimbabwe
-
the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family
noun
noun
Etymology
Origin of tonga
First recorded in 1870–75, tonga is from the Hindi word tāṅgā
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.
I suppose their might be a risk of some of the potential GB players competing for their home countries - tonga, samoa, south africa, new zealand, holland etc. but i'm sure it'll be good.
From The Guardian • Aug. 7, 2012
"Na, na, damchee, na, na, damchee! " wailed the tongawalla to a British officer, who was trying to rent his two-wheeled tonga at an air base in India.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
The tonga skipped merrily as a young fawn, from ridge to ridge.
From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard
Luckily the Thakur had, some twenty miles back, stepped out to smoke by the roadside, and his tonga had been passed meanwhile.
From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard
In the morning the tonga rattled past Deoli Cemetery into the open, where the Deoli Irregulars were drilling.
From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard
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.