ring
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: rĭng
ipa: /ɹɪŋ/
rhymes: -ɪŋ
homophone: wring
Forms: form: rings
form: ringing
form: ringed
form: ringed
Etymology: 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.
Cognates
* West Frisian ring
* Low German Ring
* Dutch ring
* German Ring
* Swedish ring
* Finnish rengas
More distantly cognate with Proto-Slavic *krǫgъ (whence Bulgarian кръг (krǎg), Polish krąg, Russian круг (krug)).
Senses: examples: text: The inner city was ringed with dingy industrial areas.
text: Today, when stepping off the train, you're presented with a bright and airy concourse that's ringed with a variety of facilities.
ref: 2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Eastbourne”, in RAIL, number 948, page 27:
glosses: To enclose or surround.
examples: text: They ringed the trees to make the clearing easier next year.
text: 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.
ref: 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 50:
glosses: To make an incision around; to girdle; to cut away a circular tract of bark from a tree in order to kill it.
examples: text: We managed to ring 22 birds this morning.
text: Ringing a pig of ordinary size is easy, but special arrangements must be made for handling the big ones.
ref: 1919, Popular Science, volume 95, number 4, page 31:
glosses: To attach a ring to, especially for identification.
examples: text: to ring a pig’s snout
text: Ring these fingers with thy household worms.
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
glosses: To surround or fit with a ring, or as if with a ring.
examples: text: […] how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing / In his ecstacy!
ref: 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:
topics: falconry
hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: To rise in the air spirally.
examples: text: 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.
text: 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".
ref: 2019 (10 December), Ross McCarthy, Digbeth chop shop gang jailed over £2m stolen car racket (in Birmingham Live) https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/digbeth-chop-shop-gang-jailed-17393456
glosses: To steal and change the identity of (cars) in order to resell them.
examples: text: ‘I was ringing for your dad out there at Haddon Hill the year you was born. It was a good year for calves.’
ref: 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 289:
glosses: 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.
Derived terms: ringer
ring-fence
ringfence
ring in