Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A game of chance in which each player has one or more cards printed with differently numbered squares on which to place markers when the respective numbers are drawn and announced by a caller. The first player to mark a complete row or other pattern of numbers is the winner.
  • noun A win in the game of bingo.
  • interjection Used to announce that one has won a game of bingo.
  • interjection Used to express the sudden completion of an event, occurrence of an idea, or confirmation of a guess.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A game of dominoes essentially identical with the card game of sixty-six. See sixty-six.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a game commonly used for low-stakes gambling, in which numbered balls or slips are drawn at random and players cover the correponding numbers on their cards, called Bingo cards, which have square arrangement of such numbers. Each card has a different arrangement of the numbers, and the first player to cover all numbers in one row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) is the winner, usually announcing that fact by a cry of “Bingo!”

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable A game of chance for two or more players, who mark off numbers on a grid as they are announced by the caller; the game is won by the first person to call out "bingo!" or "house!" after crossing off all numbers on the grid or in one line of the grid.
  • noun countable A win in such a game.
  • noun countable, Scrabble A play where all seven letter tiles are played.
  • interjection Used by players of bingo to claim a win.
  • interjection informal Used when finding what one has been looking for or trying to recall.
  • interjection informal Similarly, used to declare "You've just made my point!" or "My point exactly!".

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a game in which numbered balls are drawn at random and players cover the corresponding numbers on their cards

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alternate form of bing, suggesting a ringing sound (1925).

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Examples

  • Mr. Booker manages his own retirement account and what he calls a "bingo account" for stock plays.

    What a Downgrade Means for You Jonathan Cheng 2011

  • One of the online casino sites where people can read about bingo reviews and then access to play internet bingo is from Ballsupbingo. co.uk.

    UK Bingo Development | Poker Hands 2010

  • Another advantage given by online bingo is that each player is able to interact with other bingo lovers.

    UK Bingo Development | Poker Hands 2010

  • UK bingo is also the superior product offered by cheeky bingo.

    UK Bingo Development | Poker Hands 2010

  • As for night cover detectives, where I come from its 6 per night for the county with a cover Det Insp. Also the problem with bullsh*t bingo is that you always start laughing. on September 26, 2007 at 8: 08 am | Reply Bewildered at Dawn

    Blood Red Shoes « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2007

  • Political analysts say Estrada may have angered Singson by giving businessman Charlie Ang, a presidential buddy, control over a new -- and legitimate -- gambling game called bingo 2 ball.

    'A Quarrel Among Thieves' 2008

  • Wynn learned the basics by working for his father in bingo establishments and worked as a slot and keno manager in his early days.

    Bartolotta Ristorante de Mare – Travel to the Italian Seaside Without the Jetlag 2006

  • On that day at the checkpoint some people were detained in the concrete cell because their name bingo-ed on the computer list.

    Free Radicals 2007

  • "The machines that they call bingo machines are not bingo machines at all," Byrne told

    News for Opelika-Auburn News 2010

  • He hit around +7 or so in his buzzword bingo score by our count, not bad for the bit more than two sentences we could bear to quote.

    The Inquirer 2010

  • Dr. Fitzpatrick, a retired nuclear physicist, pioneered a technique she calls “DNA bingo,” in which relatives’ genetic data is used to generate a suspect’s possible surname.

    Sooner or Later Your Cousin’s DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder By 2019

Comments

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  • In aviation (especially military): the equivalent of "Hmmmm...time to RTB (return to base), I'm bingo fuel." The fuel needed to RTB with required reserves for, say, a missed approach and/or holding for weather.

    January 25, 2008

  • Also when a scrabble player uses all seven letters in one play.

    January 25, 2008

  • That's one of my pet peeves. They should be called scrabbles not bingos. Why drag in a different game?

    January 25, 2008

  • Also a P.G. Wodehouse character: Bingo Little, went to school with Bertie Wooster (and is fond of reminding him of such). Loves not wisely, nor terribly well for the most part. Participant in The Great Sermon Handicap.

    January 26, 2008

  • Nigerian English - 1. Dog 2. Cooked dog meat. See Four-o-four. 3. Common dog name in Nigeria.

    September 17, 2008

  • There's two varieties of Scrabble bingos: Natural Bingo, made without the use of blank tiles, and Blank Bingo, which...is obvious.

    November 27, 2019