Definition of "ringmaster"

ringmaster

noun
plural ringmasters
1. The person who manages the performers in a circus ring.
2. (Internet) The person who maintains a 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
  Each of the member websites in a webring had a navigation area at the bottom of the page that had “next” and “previous” buttons directing surfers to other sites in the ring. […] People needed ringmasters because the number of sites aimed at women was exploding.
  2020, Lisa Levenstein, They Didn't See Us Coming
verb
third-person singular simple present ringmasters, present participle ringmastering, simple past and past participle ringmastered
1. To act as ringmaster.
2. (figurative) To control (a group of people).