zing
Americannoun
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zings
plural
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vitality, animation, or zest.
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a quality or characteristic that excites the interest, enthusiasm, etc..
a tourist town with lots of zing.
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a sharp singing or whining noise, as of a bullet passing through the air.
verb (used without object)
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zings,
present (3rd person singular)
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zinged,
past participle, past
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zinging
present participle
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to move or proceed with a sharp singing or whining noise.
The cars zinged down the highway.
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to move or proceed with speed or vitality; zip.
verb (used with object)
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zings,
present (3rd person singular)
-
zinged,
past participle, past
-
zinging
present participle
-
to cause to move with or as with a sharp, singing or whining noise.
The pitcher zinged a slider right over the plate.
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Slang. to blame or criticize severely.
City Hall always gets zinged when crime increases.
noun
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a short high-pitched buzzing sound, as of a bullet or vibrating string
-
vitality; zest
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
zingsimple
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zingssimple
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have zingedperfect
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has zingedperfect
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am zingingprogressive
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are zingingprogressive
-
is zingingprogressive
-
have been zingingperfect progressive
-
has been zingingperfect progressive
Past
-
zingedsimple
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had zingedperfect
-
was zingingprogressive
-
were zingingprogressive
-
had been zingingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of zing
First recorded in 1910–15; imitative
Explanation
Zing is a quality of excitement or enthusiasm. If you want to add some zing to your nephew's birthday party, you might want to hire a magician or offer pony rides. A director might add zing to her movie by enticing a big movie star to play a role, and your brother may tend to put extra zing in his stories in the form of exaggerated, colorful details. In both examples, zing makes something that's slightly dull seem a bit livelier. You can also use zing for a spicy or piquant flavor: "I put some cayenne pepper in the sauce to give it some zing."
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:
There is nothing fresh or original here, no wit or zing, no pressure on language or form or voice or thought.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
There’s not much comic zing in the idea that a handful of selfish families rule the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
You can eat it on its own or as a topping to many of the other dishes if you want to add a little zing.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2025
After recovering from a serious hip injury, Breach has rediscovered her pinball zing.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2025
And again, pink upon pink, a little zing zigzagging up her arm.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
If I have to have a very difficult conversation, am I going to feel the zings and zaps of anxiety, stress and fear?
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2023
The amorphousness of the series — which zings between parodic edge and epiphanies — might be a function of its peculiar DNA.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 18, 2023
When one of the band members wonders whether they will be heading south from Chicago, Sue zings, “It’s 1933. Look at me and ask that again.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2022
Yet as he lay horizontally watching the show in his red bunk bed, those same yips and mews and zings never got old.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2021
Momly threw one of her zings that sound too sweet to be a zing, which makes it zingier.
From "Patina" by Jason Reynolds
As Stinson’s anxiety appeared to be spiraling, Trevino — looking at his cap — zinged him: “Dodgers, are you kidding me?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2023
John Updike zinged him on several occasions and gave an unpleasant lawyer the name Gilman in his novel “S.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2023
Now on the mound, the lefty zinged it.
From Fox News ● Sep. 20, 2021
In a scrimmage at the stadium, Lawrence rolled out to his right, stood up statue-straight and zinged a laser to the fingertips of a receiver 40 yards upfield.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 18, 2021
An unpleasant feeling zinged from the boy’s chest up to his head, which throbbed, and back down to his feet, which tingled.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
"This is one of those few shows that I'm involved in where I can go 'you need to come. It's really good', because the zinging one-liners are all his."
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
This zinging back-and-forth is also in evidence in the film, in which these sisters metaphorically tear each other apart and then try to heal the wounds that have festered.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2024
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
The river has slowed somewhat since then, but white-water rafters are still zinging by as if they were propelled by some hidden motor.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2023
Without even looking, he catches a ball that comes zinging our way and flings it back to home.
From "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven
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.
