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dido

1 American  
[dahy-doh] / ˈdaɪ doʊ /

noun

Informal.

plural

didos, didoes

  1. a mischievous trick; prank; antic.

  2. a bauble or trifle.

Dido 2 American  
[dahy-doh] / ˈdaɪ doʊ /

noun

  1. Phoenician Elissa.  Classical Mythology. a queen of Carthage who killed herself when abandoned by Aeneas.

  2. a female given name.

Dido 1 British  
/ ˈdaɪdəʊ /

noun

  1. classical myth a princess of Tyre who founded Carthage and became its queen. Virgil tells of her suicide when abandoned by her lover Aeneas

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
dido 2 British  
/ ˈdaɪdəʊ /

noun

  1. an antic; prank; trick

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Dido Cultural  

  1. In Roman mythology, the founder and queen of Carthage in north Africa. She committed suicide in grief over the departure of her lover, the hero Aeneas.

Discover More

Dido is an image of the unhappy or unrequited lover.

Etymology

Origin of dido

First recorded in 1800–10; origin uncertain

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.

The story of the first Carthaginian queen, Dido, was co-opted by the Roman poet Virgil, whose hero, Aeneas, spurns her.

From The Wall Street Journal

A senior lecturer at Cardiff University, Ms. MacDonald opens with the historical Dido, who seems to have been born in the ninth century B.C. in the city of Tyre, in present-day Lebanon.

From The Wall Street Journal

Her name wasn’t Dido but Elishat, transcribed by the ancient Greeks as Elissa.

From The Wall Street Journal

We can only guess how the Romans came to call her Dido; Ms. MacDonald supposes it was an epithet meaning “the wanderer.”

From The Wall Street Journal

The pre-Virgilian sources suggest that Dido’s brother, Pygmalion, killed her husband and usurped the throne.

From The Wall Street Journal

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.