Ring

Pronunciation

• enPR: rÄ­ng, IPA: /ɹɪŋ/
• enPR: rÄ“ng, IPA: /ɹiːŋ/
• Homophones: wring
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

From Middle English ring, ryng, also rink, rynk, from Old English hring, hrincg ("ring, link of chain, fetter, festoon, anything circular, circle, circular group, border, horizon, corselet, circuit (of a year), cycle, course, orb, globe"), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz ("circle"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krengʰ- ("to turn, bend"). Akin to Scots ring ("ring"), West Frisian ring ("ring"), Saterland Frisian Ring ("ring, circle"), Dutch ring ("ring, hoop"), Low German Ring ("ring"), German Ring ("ring, circle"), Swedish ring ("ring, circle"), Icelandic hringur ("ring"), Umbrian krenkatrum, cringatro ("belt"), Proto-Slavic *krǫgъ ("circle") (Russian круг), Old English hrung ("cross-bar, spoke"), Albanian vrangull ("a wheel-shaped tool, circle motion"), rreng ("to do a prank, cheat, deceive"). More at rung.

Full definition of ring

Noun

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.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)The dearest ring in Venice will I give you.
3. (British) 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. 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.
8. (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
• John Milton (1608-1674)And hears the Muses in a ring
  Aye round about Jove's altar sing.
• 1944, Miles Burton, The Three Corpse Trick Chapter 5, 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.
2. (astronomy) A formation of various pieces of material orbiting around a planet.
3. (British) A large circular prehistoric stone construction such as Stonehenge.
4. A piece of food in the shape of a ring.
   onion rings
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.
• Edmund Smith (1672–1710)Place me, O, place me in the dusty ring,
  Where youthful charioteers contend for glory.
6. An exclusive group of people, usually involving some unethical or illegal practices.
   a crime ring;  a prostitution ring
• Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-1892)the ruling ring at Constantinople
7. (geometry) A planar geometrical figure included between two concentric circles.
8. (typography) A diacritical mark in the shape of a hollow circle placed above or under the letter; a kroužek.
9. (historical) An old English measure of corn equal to the coomb or half a quarter.
• 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 1, page 168.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. —
10. (computing theory) A hierarchical level of privilege in a computer system, usually at hardware level, used to protect data and functionality (also protection ring).
• 2007, Steve Anson, Steve Bunting, Mastering Windows Network Forensics and Investigation (page 70)Kernel Mode processes run in ring 0, and User Mode processes run in ring 3.
11. (firearms) Either of the pair of clamps used to hold a telescopic sight to a rifle.

Synonyms

• (circumscribing object) hoop, annulus, torus

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To surround or enclose.The inner city was ringed with dingy industrial areas.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To make an incision around; to girdle.They ringed the trees to make the clearing easier next year.
3. (transitive) To attach a ring to, especially for identification.Only ringed hogs may forage in the commons.We managed to ring 22 birds this morning.
4. (transitive) To surround or fit with a ring, or as if with a ring.to ring a pig's snout
• ShakespeareRing these fingers.
5. (falconry) To rise in the air spirally.
• 1877, Gerard Manley Hopkins, :.. how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing ..

Derived terms

• ringer

From Middle English ringen, from Old English hringan ("to ring, sound, clash; announce by bells"), from Proto-Germanic *hringijaną ("to resound, ring"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreg- ("to crow, caw, croak, shout"). Cognate with Dutch ringen ("to ring"), Danish ringe ("to ring, call"), Swedish ringa ("to ring, call"), Icelandic hringja ("to ring, call"), Lithuanian krañkti ("to caw, croak, cough"), Albanian vring ("a high-pitched sound made by waving violently a solid object").

Noun

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. (colloquial) A telephone call.I’ll give you a ring when the plane lands.
4. Any loud sound; the sound of numerous voices; a sound continued, repeated, or reverberated.
• Francis Baconthe ring of acclamations fresh in his ears
5. A chime, or set of bells harmonically tuned.
• Fulleras great and tunable a ring of bells as any in the world

Derived terms

• give a ring
• ringtone

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of a bell, to produce sound.The bells were ringing in the town.
2. (transitive) To make (a bell) produce sound.The deliveryman rang the doorbell to drop off a parcel.
• ShakespeareThe shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
  Hath rung night's yawning peal.
3. (intransitive, figuratively) To produce the sound of a bell or a similar sound.Whose mobile phone is ringing?
4. (intransitive, figuratively) Of something spoken or written, to appear to be, to seem, to sound.That does not ring true.
5. (transitive, colloquial, British, New Zealand) To telephone (someone).I will ring you when we arrive.
6. (intransitive) to resound, reverberate, echo.
• 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4So 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, :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."
7. (intransitive) To produce music with bells.
8. (dated) To repeat often, loudly, or earnestly.

Derived terms

A shortening of German Zahlring ("number(s) ring"); coined by mathematician David Hilbert in 1892. (Reference: Harvey Cohn, Advanced Number Theory, page 49.)

Noun

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, $\backslash mathbb\{Z\}$, 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 $2\backslash mathbb\{Z\}$ of even integers to be a ring.

Hypernyms

• pseudo-ring
• semiring

Hyponyms

• commutative ring
• integral domain
• unique factorization domain, Noetherian domain
• principal ideal domain
• Euclidean domain
• field

Derived terms

• Boolean ring
• polynomial ring

Anagrams

• girn
• grin
• NGRI