David Balls of Digital Spy gave the song a two out of five star rating, and wrote, "in comparison to the majority of the group's singles, it's a half-hearted, bland and middle of the road offering that lacks the excitement of Sugababes at their best".

When a Kyoto native wants a guest to leave, she does not say "please go back home", but suggests serving the guest "bubuzuke", a Kyoto word for standard "chazuke", even though she is halfhearted about serving it.

Efforts to westernise the armies were half-hearted and undisciplined: newer techniques were not absorbed by the soldiers while the older methods and experience were lost. The Maratha Empire lacked an efficient spy system, and they were poor students of diplomacy.

As the war proceeded, it was clear that Essex and Manchester were at best half-hearted in pursuing the fight against the royalists, an attitude that became ever more apparent as the struggle became more radical. The growing rift between the Lords and the Commons finally came to a point of crisis when the fruits of the great victory at the battle of Marston Moor were allowed to slip away at the disappointing second battle of Newbury.

However, most of the warlords were somewhat half-hearted towards the campaign, due to a mixture of only wanting to keep their own power and having already seen four previous campaigns fail.

Sims actually had a significant following among blacks, but there were those who resented the half-hearted attempt by ownership at addressing that community.

Nomis said that Wigan's offer was "half-hearted", while Oldham would not agree to his financial terms and so their offer collapsed.

A more positive assessment comes from Lindsay Planer of Allmusic: "While arguably simplistic, both lyrics and tune boast Harrison's trademark optimism, especially during the affable and repeated chorus of 'Ring out the old/Ring in the new/Ring out the false/Ring in the true.'" In his 2010 Harrison biography, Ian Inglis observes that the song had neither the "overt political message" of Lennon's Christmas single nor the "unashamed commercialism" of fellow ex-Beatle Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime", and writes that "Ding Dong"'s "somewhat halfhearted festive appeal" seems out of place on "Dark Horse".

Happening upon a near-dead criminal in the Bowery, Harrow, entertaining half-hearted hopes of redemption, cybernetically restored the criminal, who became the gangster Hammerhead.

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave the movie 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ram-Leela is a lavish visual spread and is filled with moments of thrill, ingenuity and splendour but falters somewhere due to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's confused priorities and half-hearted romanticism."