Definition of "ring"

ring¹

/ɹɪŋ/

noun
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.
  2. A round piece of (precious) metal worn around the finger or through the ear, nose, etc.
    Quotations
    The dearest ring in Venice will I give you.
    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[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i]
  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.
  5. In a jack plug, the connector between the tip and the sleeve.
  6. (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.
  7. (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.
    Quotations
    And hears the Muſes in a ring, / Ay round about Joves Altar ſing.
    a. 1645, John Milton, “Il Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, page 39
    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.
    1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick
  2. (astronomy) A formation of various pieces of material orbiting around a planet or young star.
  3. (Britain) A large circular prehistoric stone construction such as Stonehenge.
3. A piece of food in the shape of a ring.
4. (Internet) Short for webring.
  Quotations
  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.
  2002, Feroz Khan, Information Society in Global Age, page 100
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.
  Quotations
  Place me, O, place me in the dusty ring, / Where youthful charioteers contend for glory.
  1707, Edmund Smith, Phaedra and Hippolitus
  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.
  Quotations
  the ruling ring at Constantinople
  1877, Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England
  It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot.
  1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston
  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.
  2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian‎
7. (chemistry) A group of atoms linked by bonds to form a closed chain in a molecule.
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.
  Quotations
  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
  1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 168
11. (computing theory) A hierarchical level of privilege in a computer system, usually at hardware level, used to protect data and functionality (also protection ring).
  Quotations
  Kernel Mode processes run in ring 0, and User Mode processes run in ring 3.
  2007, Steve Anson, Steve Bunting, Mastering Windows Network Forensics and Investigation, page 70
12. (firearms) Either of the pair of clamps used to hold a telescopic sight to a rifle.
13. (cartomancy) The twenty-fifth Lenormand card.
verb
third-person singular simple present rings, present participle ringing, simple past and past participle ringed
1. (transitive) To enclose or surround.
  Quotations
  Today, when stepping off the train, you're presented with a bright and airy concourse that's ringed with a variety of facilities.
  2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Eastbourne”, in RAIL, number 948, page 27
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 50
3. (transitive) To attach a ring to, especially for identification.
  Quotations
  Ringing a pig of ordinary size is easy, but special arrangements must be made for handling the big ones.
  1919, Popular Science, volume 95, number 4, page 31
4. (transitive) To surround or fit with a ring, or as if with a ring.
  Quotations
  Ring these fingers with thy household worms.
  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, [Act III, scene iv]
5. (falconry) To rise in the air spirally.
  Quotations
  […] how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing / In his ecstacy!
  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, stanza 1, page 29
6. (transitive) To steal and change the identity of (cars) in order to resell them.
  Quotations
  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.
  A. Woodley, Trio: 3 short stories
  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".
  2019 (10 December), Ross McCarthy, Digbeth chop shop gang jailed over £2m stolen car racket (in Birmingham Live)
7. (Australia, transitive) To ride around (a group of animals, especially catle) to keep them milling in one place; hence (intransitive), to work as a drover, to muster cattle.
  Quotations
  ‘I was ringing for your dad out there at Haddon Hill the year you was born. It was a good year for calves.’
  2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 289

ring²

/ɹɪŋ/

noun
plural rings
1. The resonant sound of a bell, or a sound resembling it.
2. (figuratively) A pleasant or correct sound.
3. (figuratively) A sound or appearance that is characteristic of something.
4. (colloquial) A telephone call.
5. Any loud sound; the sound of numerous voices; a sound continued, repeated, or reverberated.
  Quotations
  the ring of acclamations fresh in his ears
  1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret
6. A chime, or set of bells harmonically tuned.
  Quotations
  as great and tunable a ring of bells as any in the worldThe spelling has been modernized.
  1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837
verb
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.
2. (transitive) To make (a bell, etc.) produce a resonant sound.
  Quotations
  The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, / Hath rung night's yawning peal.
  c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]
3. (transitive) To produce (a sound) by ringing.
4. (intransitive, figuratively) To produce the sound of a bell or a similar sound.
5. (intransitive, figuratively) Of something spoken or written, to appear to be, to seem, to sound.
6. (transitive, colloquial, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To telephone (someone).
7. (intransitive) to resound, reverberate, echo.
  Quotations
  […] And many an old philosophy⁠On Argive heights divinely sang,⁠And round us all the thicket rangTo many a flute of Arcady.
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto XXIII, page 40
  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.
  1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934
  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."
  1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress
8. (intransitive) To produce music with bells.
  Quotations
  Four Bells admit Twenty-four changes in Ringing
  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, […]
9. To ring up (enter into a cash register or till)
  Quotations
  The checkout girl rang it into his total, and he paid the bill.
  1983, T.C. Knudsen, John Hempstead, A Man's Guide to Women
  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.
  1990, The New Zealand Law Reports - Volume 3, page 75
  . The new cashier rang something twice and had to call for the manager to fix the register.
  2011, Tracy E Whipple, A Friend's Last Gift, page 88
10. (dated) To repeat often, loudly, or earnestly.

ring³

/ɹɪŋ/

noun
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.
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.

ring⁴

/ɹɪŋ/

noun
plural rings
1. (mathematical analysis, measure theory) A family of sets that is closed under finite unions and differences.

Definition of "ring"

ring1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

ring2

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

ring3

noun

ring4

noun

ring¹

ring²

ring³

ring⁴