A wild, chaotic, ridiculous, and/or disastrous event. Sometimes written as "gongshow." From the 1976–1978 television show The Gong Show, an amateur talent contest in which judges would end particularly bad acts by striking a giant gong. Primarily heard in Canada. Did you go to that party last night? What a gong show! A: "How do you think you did on your exam?" B: "It was a total gong show. I'll be lucky if I even passed."

To abruptly dismiss or stop someone who is in the middle of something. The 1970s TV show The Gong Show popularized the practice of halting a talent act by striking a gong. I thought my presentation was going well, until the boss gonged me halfway through and wouldn't let me continue!

old-fashioned slang To smoke opium or inject heroin. With how glassy her eyes were, I wondered whether she'd been kicking the gong around before she came over to meet me. I think I'll stay home. I hear they're planning to kick the gong around, and I'd rather not be there for that.