ringer

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪŋə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English ringere, rynger, ryngar, equivalent to ring (“to sound a bell”) +‎ -er.

Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

1. Someone who rings, especially a bell ringer.
   • 1863, Jean Ingelow, High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire:

     Pull, if ye never pull′d before;
     Good ringers, pull your best," quoth he.

2. (mining) A crowbar.

Derived terms

• ringer equivalence number

References

Etymology 2

From ring (“to surround”) +‎ -er.

Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

1. (games) In the game of horseshoes, the event of the horseshoe landing around the pole.
2. (uncountable, games) A game of marbles where players attempt to knock each other's marbles out of a ring drawn on the ground.
3. A ringer T-shirt.
   • 2007, Descant, number 138, page 28:

     […] shabby baseball caps, faded and worn-out T-shirts, ringers and polos with artificially aged hems […]

   • 2011, Buck Peden, Baseball, Golf, Wars, Women & Puppies: An Autobiography, page 278:

     The shirts were light blue heather ringers with royal blue trim on the necks and sleeves.

See also

• ringer T-shirt

Etymology 3

Unknown. Probably so named after the custom of ringing a bell to denote the winner of a contest or competition.

Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

1. (UK, dialect) A top performer.
2. (Australia) The champion shearer of a shearing shed.
   • 1891 December 5, The Bacchus Marsh Express, Victoria, page 7, column 7:

     Click goes his shears; click, click, click.
     Wide are the blows, and his hand is moving quick,
     The ringer looks round, for he lost it by a blow,
     And he curses that old shearer with the bare belled ewe.

3. (Australia) A stockman, a cowboy.
   • 1964, Alec Bolton, Walkabout′s Australia, Walkabout magazine, page 107,

     The ringers are the stockmen on a station. The cattle pass through their hands before the drovers lift them and take them along the stock routes that lead to the killing pens in cities.

   • 1987, Geoffrey Atkinson, Philip Quirk., The Australian Adventure: The Explorer′s Guide to the Island Continent, page 175:

     This vast holding is run by six ringers and six boys. A ringer is a qualified stationhand and a boy is a trainee. It takes four years for a boy to become a ringer.

   • 2005, Jake Drake, The Wild West in Australia and America, page 156:

     Most people associated with the Australian beef industry believe the ringer′s skill of throwing cattle by the tail to be a practice that is purely Australian. There is ample evidence however, that it was practised in South and Central America long before it was developed here.

Etymology 4

Some senses may derive from ring the changes (“run through variations; enliven; pass counterfeit money; trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change”).

Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

1. (slang) Any person or thing that is fraudulent; a fake or impostor.
2. (sports) A person highly proficient at a skill or sport who is brought in, often fraudulently, to supplement a team.

   Synonym: hustler

3. (horse racing) A horse fraudulently entered in a race using the name of another horse.
4. (UK, slang) A fraudulently cloned motor vehicle.
   • 2020, Tom Hartley, Tom Hartley: The Dealmaker:

     I had heard early on in my career about 'ringers': cars that were stolen and cloned, but it was 1993 before I was to experience this first-hand.

Etymology 5

Unclear. Compare ring of truth.

Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

1. A person, animal, or entity which resembles another so closely as to be taken for the other; a look-alike (now usually in the phrase dead ringer).

   Synonym: dead ringer

   That man over there is an exact ringer for my father!

   • 1998, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, The Big Lebowski‎ (motion picture), spoken by The Dude (Jeff Bridges):

     I mean, he knows we never handed off the briefcase, but he never asked for it back. The million bucks was never in the briefcase! The asshole was hoping that they would kill her! You threw out a ringer for a ringer!

Etymology 6

ring +‎ -er, from the noun.

Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

1. (UK, military, informal, in combination) An officer having the specified number of rings (denoting rank) on the uniform sleeve.
   • 2012, John Harris, The Lonely Voyage:

     A group of naval one- and two-ringers were chatting by the office door with a few ratings, complete with kit-bags and oilskins.

   • 2013, Dudley Pope, Convoy:

     The senior officer of the escort was an RN two and a half ringer who had a reputation of being one of the best.

Anagrams

• Griner, erring, gerrin', girner

Danish

Verb

ringer

1. present of ringe

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

ringer m

1. indefinite plural of ring

Verb

ringer

1. present of ringe

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

ringer

1. present of ringa

Old Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse hringr, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz.

Noun

ringer m

1. ring, circle

Declension

Descendants

• Swedish: ring

Swedish

Verb

ringer

1. present indicative of ringa