ping-pong

[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.
verb (used without object)
2.
to go back and forth; change rapidly or regularly; shift; bounce:
For ten years the foreign correspondent ping-ponged between London and Paris.
Origin
1900-05

Ping-Pong

[ping-pong, -pawng] /ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ, -ˌpɔŋ/
Trademark.
1.
table tennis.
British Dictionary definitions for ping-pong

Ping-Pong

/ˈpɪŋˌpɒŋ/
noun
1.
trademark another name for table tennis Also called ping pong
Word Origin and History for ping-pong
n.

1900, as Ping-Pong, trademark for table tennis equipment (Parker Brothers). Both words are imitative of the sound of the ball hitting a hard surface; from ping + pong (attested from 1823). It had a "phenomenal vogue" in U.S. c.1900-1905.

v.

1901, from ping-pong (n.). In the figurative sense from 1952. Related: Ping-ponged; ping-ponging.

Slang definitions & phrases for ping-pong

ping-pong

verb
  1. To refer a patient, esp a Medicaid recipient, to other doctors in order to maximize fees: ''Medicaid mills'' or clinics reap enormous profits by such practices as ''Ping Ponging''
  2. o go back and forth; change rapidly or regularly; shift; bounce

[1972+ Medical; fr Ping-Pong, trademark for a manufacturer's table-tennis set and game]


ping-pong in Technology
architecture
A phenomenon which can occur in a multi-processor system with private caches where two processors are alternately caching a shared location. Each time one writes to it, it invalidates the other's copy.
(1995-12-29)