dingbat

Noun

dingbat (plural dingbats)

1. (informal) A silly, crazy or stupid person.
   • 'Midge was such a dingbat', Jenny Fields wrote in her autobiography, 'that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during World War Two.'1978, John Irving, chapter 2, in World according to Garp
   • I hung around the older crews while they sling smack to dingbats1994, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”, in Illmatic, performed by Nas

   Synonyms:

   dingus

2. A special ornamental typographical symbol, such as a bullet, an arrow, a pointing hand etc.
   • "The compulsive editor, when checking the specs on an article, can't help checking also for such items as initial capital and closing dingbat, if they are used routinely. These decorative items have a way of being forgotten..."1982, The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists, Arthur Plotnik, p.8
3. An architectural style of apartment building, where the second storey overhangs an area for parking cars.
4. A kind of word puzzle involving pictures or typography that hint at the solution.
   • This can be a dingbat, anagram, word puzzle, riddle or other quick warm-up activity and demonstrates to your students that when they come into your lessons, you get them thinking right away.2015, Georgia Holleran, Ian Gilbert, A Teacher’s Companion to Essential Motivation in the Classroom
   • A dingbat is a kind of picture puzzle. Each picture represents a word, phrase or name, and the picture can often be supplemented with a couple of letters to assist in the guessing.2016, Stephen Scoffham, Teaching Geography Creatively, page 17

   Synonyms:

   rebus

5. (slang) Anything that can be thrown or swung with force against something else.
6. A small device or gadget, the correct term for which is forgotten or unknown.

   Synonyms:

   dingus, thingamabob, doohickey, Sorted by number of Google hits, widget, hickey, gizmo, thingy, gimmick, thingie