ring

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: rĭng; IPA^(key): /ɹɪŋ/

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋ
• Homophone: wring

From Middle English ryng, from Old English hring (“ring, circle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krengʰ-, extended nasalized form of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Doublet of rank and rink, as well as indirectly range.

More distantly cognate with Proto-Slavic *krǫgъ (whence Bulgarian кръг (krǎg), Polish krąg, Russian круг (krug)).

ring (plural rings)

1. (physical) A solid object in the shape of a circle.
   2. A circumscribing object, (roughly) circular and hollow, looking like an annual ring, earring, finger ring etc.

      Synonyms: annulus, hoop, torus

   4. (jewelry) A round piece of (precious) metal worn around the finger or through the ear, nose, etc.
      • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

        The dearest ring in Venice will I give you.

   5. (UK) A bird band, a round piece of metal put around a bird's leg used for identification and studies of migration.
   6. (UK) A burner on a kitchen stove.
   7. In a jack plug, the connector between the tip and the sleeve.
   8. (historical) An instrument, formerly used for taking the sun's altitude, consisting of a brass ring suspended by a swivel, with a hole at one side through which a solar ray entering indicated the altitude on the graduated inner surface opposite.
   9. (botany) A flexible band partly or wholly encircling the spore cases of ferns.
2. (physical) A group of objects arranged in a circle.
   1. A circular group of people or objects.

      a ring of mushrooms growing in the wood

      • a. 1645, John Milton, “Il Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, , London: Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, , published 1646, →OCLC, page 39:

        And hears the Muſes in a ring, / Ay round about Joves Altar ſing.

      • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

        The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

   2. (astronomy) A formation of various pieces of material orbiting around a planet or young star.
   3. (British) A large circular prehistoric stone construction such as Stonehenge.
3. A piece of food in the shape of a ring.

   onion rings

4. (Internet) Ellipsis of webring.
   • 2002, Feroz Khan, Information Society in Global Age, page 100:

     Individuals looking to add their own homepage to a particular ring are, however, more or less at the mercy of the ringmaster, who often maintains a ring homepage listing its acceptance (or membership) policies and an index of its member sites.

5. A place where some sports or exhibitions take place; notably a circular or comparable arena, such as a boxing ring or a circus ring; hence the field of a political contest.
   • 1707, Edmund Smith, Phaedra and Hippolitus:

     Place me, O, place me in the dusty ring, / Where youthful charioteers contend for glory.

   1. The open space in front of a racecourse stand, used for betting purposes.
7. An exclusive group of people, usually involving some unethical or illegal practices.

   a crime ring; a prostitution ring; a bidding ring (at an auction sale)

   • 1877, Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England:

     the ruling ring at Constantinople

   • 1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston:

     It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot.

   • 2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian‎:

     In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.

8. (chemistry) A group of atoms linked by bonds to form a closed chain in a molecule.

   a benzene ring

9. (geometry) A planar geometrical figure included between two concentric circles.
10. (typography) A diacritical mark in the shape of a hollow circle placed above or under the letter; a kroužek.
11. (historical) An old English measure of corn equal to the coomb or half a quarter.
    • 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 168:

      The ring is common in the Huntingdonshire accounts of Ramsey Abbey. It was equal to half a quarter, i.e., is identical with the coomb of the eastern counties

12. (computing theory) A hierarchical level of privilege in a computer system, usually at hardware level, used to protect data and functionality (also protection ring).
    • 2007, Steve Anson, Steve Bunting, Mastering Windows Network Forensics and Investigation, page 70:

      Kernel Mode processes run in ring 0, and User Mode processes run in ring 3.

13. (firearms) Either of the pair of clamps used to hold a telescopic sight to a rifle.
14. (cartomancy) The twenty-fifth Lenormand card.
15. (networking) A network topology where connected devices form a circular data channel. All computers on the ring can see every message, and there are no collisions, and a single point of failure will occur if any part of the ring breaks.

• red ring

• 
  A boxing ring.
• 
  A ring on a finger.
• 
  The rings of a tree.
• 
  The circus ring.
• 
  A ring on a bird's leg.
• 
  The rings of Saturn.

ring (third-person singular simple present rings, present participle ringing, simple past and past participle ringed)

1. (transitive) To enclose or surround.

   The inner city was ringed with dingy industrial areas.

   • 2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Eastbourne”, in RAIL, number 948, page 27:

     Today, when stepping off the train, you're presented with a bright and airy concourse that's ringed with a variety of facilities.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To make an incision around; to girdle; to cut away a circular tract of bark from a tree in order to kill it.

   They ringed the trees to make the clearing easier next year.

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 50:

     The ironbark trees are "rung" at a certain height top and bottom, and the bark detached in one sheet; it is then wetted, and laid out flat on the ground, huge stones being placed to keep it from rolling up again.

3. (transitive) To attach a ring to, especially for identification.

   We managed to ring 22 birds this morning.

   • 1919, Popular Science, volume 95, number 4, page 31:

     Ringing a pig of ordinary size is easy, but special arrangements must be made for handling the big ones.

4. (transitive) To surround or fit with a ring, or as if with a ring.

   to ring a pig’s snout

   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Ring these fingers with thy household worms.

5. (falconry) To rise in the air spirally.
   • 1877 May 30, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published , London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 29:

     how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing / In his ecstacy!

6. (transitive) To steal and change the identity of (cars) in order to resell them.
   • A. Woodley, Trio: 3 short stories

     Gabe said that as Derry had only caught part of the conversation, it's possible that they were discussing a film, it was bad enough that they'd unwittingly been brought into ringing cars, adding drugs into it was far more than either of them could ever be comfortable with.

   • 2019 (10 December), Ross McCarthy, Digbeth chop shop gang jailed over £2m stolen car racket (in Birmingham Live)

     They used two bases in Digbeth to break down luxury motors, some of which were carjacked or stolen after keys were taken in house raids. The parts were then fitted to salvaged cars bought online. Jailing the quartet, a judge at Birmingham Crown Court said it was a "car ringing on a commercial and substantial scale".

7. (Australia, transitive) To ride around (a group of animals, especially cattle) to keep them milling in one place; hence (intransitive), to work as a drover, to muster cattle.
   • 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 289:

     ‘I was ringing for your dad out there at Haddon Hill the year you was born. It was a good year for calves.’

• ringer
• ring-fence, ringfence
• ring in

From Middle English ringen, from Old English hrinġan (“to ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringijaną. Cognate with Dutch ringen, Swedish ringa. Of imitative origin.

ring (plural rings)

1. The resonant sound of a bell, or a sound resembling it.

   The church bell's ring could be heard the length of the valley.

   The ring of hammer on anvil filled the air.

2. (figuratively) A pleasant or correct sound.

   The name has a nice ring to it.

3. (figuratively) A sound or appearance that is characteristic of something.

   Her statements in court had a ring of falsehood.

4. (colloquial) A telephone call.

   I’ll give you a ring when the plane lands.

5. Any loud sound; the sound of numerous voices; a sound continued, repeated, or reverberated.
   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban , The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, , London: W Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

     the ring of acclamations fresh in his ears

6. A chime, or set of bells harmonically tuned.

   St Mary's has a ring of eight bells.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; , London: Iohn Williams , →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):

     as great and tunable a ring of bells as any in the world

ring (third-person singular simple present rings, present participle ringing, simple past rang or (nonstandard) rung, past participle rung)

1. (intransitive) Of a bell, etc., to produce a resonant sound.

   The bells were ringing in the town.

2. (transitive) To make (a bell, etc.) produce a resonant sound.

   The deliveryman rang the doorbell to drop off a parcel.

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, / Hath rung night's yawning peal.

3. (transitive) To produce (a sound) by ringing.

   They rang a Christmas carol on their handbells.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To produce the sound of a bell or a similar sound.

   Whose mobile phone is ringing?

5. (intransitive, figuratively) Of something spoken or written, to appear to be, to seem, to sound.

   That does not ring true.

6. (transitive, colloquial, British, Australia, New Zealand) To telephone (someone).

   I will ring you when we arrive.

7. (intransitive) to resound, reverberate, echo.
   • 1850, , “Canto XXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 40:

     And many an old philosophy
     ⁠On Argive heights divinely sang,
     ⁠And round us all the thicket rang
     To many a flute of Arcady.

   • , J Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

     So he spoke, and it seemed there was a little halting at first, as of men not liking to take Blackbeard's name in Blackbeard's place, or raise the Devil by mocking at him. But then some of the bolder shouted 'Blackbeard', and so the more timid chimed in, and in a minute there were a score of voices calling 'Blackbeard, Blackbeard', till the place rang again.

   • 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:

     It is instructive for us to learn as well as to ponder on the fact that "the very men who looked down with delight, when the sand of the arena reddened with human blood, made the arena ring with applause when Terence in his famous line: ‘Homo sum, Nihil humani alienum puto’ proclaimed the brotherhood of man."

8. (intransitive) To produce music with bells.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: , London: T. N for J Martyn printer to the R Society, , →OCLC:

     Four Bells admit Twenty-four changes in Ringing

9. To ring up (enter into a cash register or till)
   • 1983, T.C. Knudsen, John Hempstead, A Man's Guide to Women:

     The checkout girl rang it into his total, and he paid the bill.

   • 1990, The New Zealand Law Reports - Volume 3, page 75:

     On presentation of the item at the checkout the original price sticker was concealed from the checkout assistant and a sticker of $38.88 exhibited on the item. The checkout operator rang on the lesser sum, a mistake known to Dronjak. He was subsequently charged with theft.

   • 2011, Tracy E Whipple, A Friend's Last Gift, page 88:

     . The new cashier rang something twice and had to call for the manager to fix the register.

10. (dated) To repeat often, loudly, or earnestly.

From a shortening of German Zahlring (“number(s) ring”) (coined by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1892). Apparently first used in English in 1930, E. T. Bell, “Rings whose elements are ideals,” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.

ring (plural rings)