ring - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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.
    1. A circumscribing object, (roughly) circular and hollow, looking like an annual ring, earring, finger ring etc.
      Synonyms: annulus, hoop, torus
    2. (jewelry) A round piece of (precious) metal worn around the finger or through the ear, nose, etc.
      His brother gifted him a ring for the engagement.
    3. (UK) A bird band, a round piece of metal put around a bird's leg used for identification and studies of migration.
    4. (UK) A burner on a kitchen stove, hob, or cooktop.
    5. A piece of food in the shape of a ring.
      onion rings; calamari rings
    6. In a jack plug, the connector between the tip and the sleeve.
    7. (vulgar) The rectum, anus, or anal sphincters.
      Lick my ring!
    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
    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 long stripe of contrastive material, colour, etc, that encircles something.
    a ring of grime around the bathtub
  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.
    • 2009 January 19, 0:14 from the start, in Meet the Soldier‎[1], spoken by Soldier (Rick May), Bellevue, Washington: Valve Corporation, via YouTube, archived from the original on 2 February 2025:
      “If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight!” Sun Tzu said that, and I'd say he knows a little more about fighting than you do, pal, because he invented it, and then he perfected it so that no living man could best him in the ring of honor.
    1. The open space in front of a racecourse stand, used for betting purposes.
  6. 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)
    • 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[2]:
      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.
  7. (chemistry) A group of atoms linked by bonds to form a closed chain in a molecule.
    a benzene ring
  8. (geometry) A planar geometrical figure included between two concentric circles.
  9. (typography) A diacritical mark in the shape of a hollow circle placed above or under the letter; a kroužek.
  10. (historical) An old English measure of corn equal to the coomb or half a quarter.
  1. (computing theory) A hierarchical level of privilege in a computer system, usually at hardware level, used to protect data and functionality (also protection ring).
  1. (firearms) Either of the pair of clamps used to hold a telescopic sight to a rifle.
  2. (cartomancy) The twenty-fifth Lenormand card.
  3. (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.

Descendants

circumscribing object

bird band

place where some sports take place

arena where circus acts take place

group of people (for illicit purposes)

chemistry: group of atoms linked by bonds to form a closed chain

geometry: a planar geometrical figure

burner (e.g. of a stove) — see burner

typography: diacritical mark in the shape of a hollow circle — see kroužek

old English measure of corn

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
  5. (falconry) To rise in the air spirally.
  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) [3]
      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.’

to surround or enclose

to surround or fit with a ring, or as if with a ring

From Middle English ryngen, from Old English hrinġan (“to ring”), from Proto-West Germanic *hringijan, from Proto-Germanic *hringijaną (“to ring”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Dutch ringen (“to ring”), Danish ringe (“to ring”), Swedish ringa (“to ring”), Faroese ringja (“to ring up, telephone”), Icelandic hringja (“to ring”), West Frisian ringelje (“to ring”), Dutch rinkelen (“to ring, jingle”), Faroese ringla (“to tinkle, jingle”).

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.
  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

resonant sound of a bell, or a sound resembling it

pleasant or correct sound

telephone call

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.
  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.
    • [1898], J[ohn] 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[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the R[oyal] 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.

(intr.) to produce a resonant sound

(tr.) to make something produce a resonant sound

to appear to be

to telephone (someone)

(intr.) to produce music with bells

From a shortening of German Zahlring (“ring of numbers”), coined by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1892.[1] Apparently first used in English in 1930, E. T. Bell, “Rings whose elements are ideals,” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.[2]

The symbol ℤ represents the ring of integers.

ring (plural rings)

  1. (algebra) An algebraic structure which consists of a set with two binary operations: an additive operation and a multiplicative operation, such that the set is an abelian group under the additive operation, a monoid under the multiplicative operation, and such that the multiplicative operation is distributive with respect to the additive operation.
    The set of integers, Z {\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} } {\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} }, is the prototypical ring.
  2. (algebra) An algebraic structure as above, but only required to be a semigroup under the multiplicative operation, that is, there need not be a multiplicative identity element.
    The definition of ring without unity allows, for instance, the set 2 Z {\displaystyle 2\mathbb {Z} } {\displaystyle 2\mathbb {Z} } of even integers to be a ring.
    Synonym: rng

algebra: an algebraic structure

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

ring (plural rings)

  1. (mathematical analysis, measure theory) A family of sets that is closed under finite unions and set-theoretic differences.[3]
  2. (mathematics, order theory) A family of sets closed under finite union and finite intersection.

family of sets...

  1. ^ 1962, Harvey Cohn, A Second Course in Number Theory, Wiley, 1980, Advanced Number Theory, Dover, Unabridged republication, page 49.
  2. ^ Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics (R)
  3. ^ Gerald B. Folland (©1999), Real Analysis : Modern Techniques and Their Applications, Second edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, →OCLC, §1.2, page 24

From Dutch ring, from Middle Dutch rinc, from Old Dutch rinc, from Proto-West Germanic *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz.

ring (plural ringe)

  1. ring, hollow circular object

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.).

ring

  1. taro

Borrowed from Old Javanese riṅ. Compare to Javanese ꦲꦶꦁ (ing, “in, on, at”).

ring (Balinese script ᬭᬶᬂ)

  1. (basa alus) in, at
    Synonym: (basa biasa) di
    Ring Bali wénten danu patpat: Batur, Beratan, Tambilingan miwah Buyan. ― There are four lakes in Bali: Batur, Beratan, Tambilingan and Buyan.
    lianan ring ― besides
    ring ajeng ― in front of
    ring arep ― in front of
    ring dija? ― (at) where?
    Ring dija ragané magenah? ― Where do you live?
    Ring dija ragané mekarya? ― Where do you work?
    ring jero ― inside
    ring pidan? ― when? (past time reference)
    Ring pidan ipun rauh? ― When did he come?
    ring sapunapi ― sometime(s), from time to time

ring

  1. (of weight) light

ring m inan

  1. ring (place where some sports take place; boxing ring and similar)

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

ring c (singular definite ringen, plural indefinite ringe)

  1. ring
  2. circle
  3. halo
  4. hoop
  5. coil

Verbal noun to ringe (“to ring”).

ring n (singular definite ringet, plural indefinite **ring)

  1. (archaic) ring (the resonant sound of a bell, a telephone call)

See ringe.

ring

  1. imperative of ringe

From Middle Dutch rinc, from Old Dutch rinc, from Proto-West Germanic *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz.

ring m (plural ringen, diminutive ringetje n)

  1. ring, hollow circular object
  2. (gymnastics) ring
  3. beltway, ring road
  4. (Mormonism) stake (territorial division)

From Middle Low German rink. Compare German Ring. See also rõngas.

ring (genitive ringi, partitive ringi)

  1. circle
Declension of ring (ÕS type 22e/riik, length gradation)
singular plural
nominative ring ringid
accusative nom.
gen. ringi
genitive ringide
partitive ringi ringeringisid
illative ringiringisse ringidesseringesse
inessive ringis ringidesringes
elative ringist ringidestringest
allative ringile ringideleringele
adessive ringil ringidelringel
ablative ringilt ringideltringelt
translative ringiks ringideksringeks
terminative ringini ringideni
essive ringina ringidena
abessive ringita ringideta
comitative ringiga ringidega

From English ring (sense 1) and Dutch ring (sense 2).

ring m (plural rings)

  1. (sports, chiefly combat sports) ring
  2. (Belgium) ring road, beltway

ring

  1. boat

ring

  1. singular imperative of ringen
  2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of ringen

From an onomatopoeic (sound-imitative) root + -g (frequentative suffix).[1]

ring

  1. (intransitive) to swing, to rock
    Synonyms: billeg, inog, ingadozik, himbálózik, himbálódzik
  2. (intransitive, of a ship) to sway, to roll
    Synonyms: ringatózik, ringatódzik, dülöng, dülöngél, himbálódzik, himbálózik

or

From English ring.[2]

ring (plural ringek)

  1. (dated, boxing) ring, boxing ring (space in which a boxing match is contested)
    Synonym: szorító

  2. ^ ring in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, →ISBN. (See also its 2nd edition.)

  3. ^ István Tótfalusi (2005), Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára [A Storehouse of Foreign Words: An Explanatory and Etymological Dictionary of Foreign Words], Budapest: Tinta, →ISBN

Onomatopoeic.

ring (plural **ring-ring)

  1. (onomatopoeia) sound of bell

From Dutch ring, from Middle Dutch rinc, from Old Dutch rinc, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz. Doublet of langsir.

ring

  1. ring,
    1. a circumscribing object, (roughly) circular and hollow, looking like an annual ring, earring, finger ring etc.
      Synonyms: cincin, gelang
    2. boxing ring
  2. (colloquial) circle
    Synonym: lingkaran

ring

  1. alternative form of ryng

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *riŋ (“loud”).

ring (stem II rin)

  1. loud

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *riŋ (“to believe, trust”).

ring (stem II rin)

  1. to believe
  2. to trust
  3. to depend on
  4. to prepare, get ready

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

ring m (definite singular ringen, indefinite plural ringer, definite plural ringene)

  1. ring; a circular piece of material
  2. The ring, place where sports such as boxing takes place

ring

  1. imperative of ringe

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

ring m (definite singular ringen, indefinite plural ringar, definite plural ringane)

  1. ring; a circular piece of material
  2. a circle
  3. The ring, place where sports such as boxing takes place

ring

  1. imperative of ringja and ringa

From Proto-West Germanic *hring.

ring m

  1. ring (object in the shape of a circle)

Borrowed from English ring. Doublet of ranga, rynek, krąg, and kręg.

ring m inan (related adjective ringowy)

  1. (boxing) boxing ring

Unadapted borrowing from English ring.

ring m (plural rings)

  1. alternative form of ringue

Borrowed from English ring.

rȉng m inan (Cyrillic spelling ри̏нг, nominative plural rìngovi)

  1. (sports) ring (place where some sports take place, e.g. boxing)

This entry needs an inflection-table template.

Borrowed from German Ring.

rȉng m inan (Cyrillic spelling ри̏нг, nominative plural rìngovi)

  1. ring (worn on the finger)

This entry needs an inflection-table template.

Borrowed from English ring. Doublet of rancho.

ring m (plural rings)

  1. (boxing) ring

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

ring c

  1. ring; a circular piece of material
  2. The ring, place where sports such as boxing takes place
  3. (mathematics) A ring, algebraic structure
  4. (mathematics) A ring, planar geometrical figure
  5. (astronomy) A ring, collection of material orbiting some planets
  6. Each of the (usually three) years in a Swedish gymnasium (highschool)
    Ann började nyss andra ring.
    Ann recently began her second year at the gymnasium.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

ring

  1. imperative of ringa

From Old Frisian hring, from Proto-West Germanic *hring. Cognate with English ring, Dutch ring, Saterland Frisian Ring.

ring c (plural ringen, diminutive rinkje)

  1. ring, circle
  2. ring (jewelry)

From Middle English ryng, from Old English hring, from Proto-West Germanic *hring.

ring

  1. ring
    • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5, page 96:
      A peepeare struck ap; wough dansth aul in a ring;
      The piper struck up, we danced all in a ring,