See machine that goes "ping" on Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "Coined in the 1983 movie Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, in a sketch depicting a group of doctors at a birth more interested in the technological equipment than the mother and baby. The eponymous machine serves no apparent purpose except making an occasional ping sound.", "forms": [ { "form": "machines that go \"ping\"", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "machines that go \"ping\"", "head": "machine that goes \"ping\"" }, "expansion": "machine that goes \"ping\" (plural machines that go \"ping\")", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ { "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "langcode": "en", "name": "Medicine", "orig": "en:Medicine", "parents": [], "source": "w" } ], "examples": [ { "ref": "2015, Amy M Dennett et al., “Machines that go \"ping\" may improve balance but may not improve mobility or reduce risk of falls: a systematic review”, in Journal of Rehabilitative Medicine, volume 47, number 1, pages 18-30:", "text": "see title", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 95, 119 ] ], "ref": "2024 January 9, Scott Snowden, “Santa Monica rolls out mobile mental health unit”, in Santa Monica Daily Press:", "text": "The inside of the vehicle is pretty sparse and there are no oxygen tanks, intravenous drips or machines that go \"ping.\"", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 25, 48 ] ], "ref": "2024 February 7, Matthew Klingle, quotee, “The Role of the Historian in Medical Research”, in Bowdoin:", "text": "\"Sure, medicine is about machines that go ‘ping’ and data and pharmacology,\" said Klingle, \"but it’s also about fear, hope, joy, sorrow, grief, all those things that are in the realm of the humanities.\"", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A piece of medical equipment, especially a bedside monitor; particularly one perceived as superfluous." ], "id": "en-machine_that_goes_\"ping\"-en-noun-yV2T4CTh", "links": [ [ "humorous", "humorous" ], [ "medical", "medical" ], [ "equipment", "equipment" ], [ "bedside", "bedside" ], [ "superfluous", "superfluous" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(informal, humorous) A piece of medical equipment, especially a bedside monitor; particularly one perceived as superfluous." ], "tags": [ "humorous", "informal" ], "wikipedia": [ "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" ] } ], "word": "machine that goes \"ping\"" }
{ "etymology_text": "Coined in the 1983 movie Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, in a sketch depicting a group of doctors at a birth more interested in the technological equipment than the mother and baby. The eponymous machine serves no apparent purpose except making an occasional ping sound.", "forms": [ { "form": "machines that go \"ping\"", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "machines that go \"ping\"", "head": "machine that goes \"ping\"" }, "expansion": "machine that goes \"ping\" (plural machines that go \"ping\")", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English countable nouns", "English entries with incorrect language header", "English humorous terms", "English informal terms", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English nouns", "English terms derived from fiction", "English terms spelled with \"", "English terms with quotations", "English terms with redundant head parameter", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries", "en:Medicine" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "2015, Amy M Dennett et al., “Machines that go \"ping\" may improve balance but may not improve mobility or reduce risk of falls: a systematic review”, in Journal of Rehabilitative Medicine, volume 47, number 1, pages 18-30:", "text": "see title", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 95, 119 ] ], "ref": "2024 January 9, Scott Snowden, “Santa Monica rolls out mobile mental health unit”, in Santa Monica Daily Press:", "text": "The inside of the vehicle is pretty sparse and there are no oxygen tanks, intravenous drips or machines that go \"ping.\"", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 25, 48 ] ], "ref": "2024 February 7, Matthew Klingle, quotee, “The Role of the Historian in Medical Research”, in Bowdoin:", "text": "\"Sure, medicine is about machines that go ‘ping’ and data and pharmacology,\" said Klingle, \"but it’s also about fear, hope, joy, sorrow, grief, all those things that are in the realm of the humanities.\"", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A piece of medical equipment, especially a bedside monitor; particularly one perceived as superfluous." ], "links": [ [ "humorous", "humorous" ], [ "medical", "medical" ], [ "equipment", "equipment" ], [ "bedside", "bedside" ], [ "superfluous", "superfluous" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(informal, humorous) A piece of medical equipment, especially a bedside monitor; particularly one perceived as superfluous." ], "tags": [ "humorous", "informal" ], "wikipedia": [ "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" ] } ], "word": "machine that goes \"ping\"" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-04 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (a681f8a and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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