English
ringer
see also: Ringer
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈɹɪŋə(ɹ)/
Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

  1. Someone who rings, especially a bell ringer.
    • 1863, Jean Ingelow, High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire,
      Pull, if ye never pull′d before;
      Good ringers, pull your best," quoth he.
  2. (mining) A crowbar.
Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

  1. (games) In the game of horseshoes, the event of the horseshoe landing around the pole.
  2. (uncountable, games) A game of marbles where players attempt to knock each other's marbles out of a ring drawn on the ground.
  3. A ringer T-shirt.
    • 2007, Descant (issue 138, page 28)
      […] shabby baseball caps, faded and worn-out T-shirts, ringers and polos with artificially aged hems […]
    • 2011, Buck Peden, Baseball, Golf, Wars, Women & Puppies: An Autobiography (page 278)
      The shirts were light blue heather ringers with royal blue trim on the necks and sleeves.
Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

  1. (sport) A person highly proficient at a skill or sport who is brought in, often fraudulently, to supplement a team.
    Synonyms: hustler
  2. (horse racing) A horse fraudulently entered in a race using the name of another horse.
  3. A person, animal, or entity which resembles another so closely as to be taken for the other, now usually in the phrase dead ringer.
    Synonyms: dead ringer
  4. (UK, slang) A fraudulently cloned motor vehicle.
    • 2020, Tom Hartley, Tom Hartley: The Dealmaker
      I had heard early on in my career about 'ringers': cars that were stolen and cloned, but it was 1993 before I was to experience this first-hand.
Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

  1. (UK, dialect) A top performer.
  2. (Australia) The champion shearer of a shearing shed.
  3. (Australia) A stockman, a cowboy.
    • 1964, Alec Bolton, Walkabout′s Australia, Walkabout magazine, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=N54rAAAAIAAJ&q=%22ringer%22|%22ringers%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&dq=%22ringer%22|%22ringers%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=d1YOUIfvEKi9iAe29oCIBw&redir_esc=y page 107],
      The ringers are the stockmen on a station. The cattle pass through their hands before the drovers lift them and take them along the stock routes that lead to the killing pens in cities.
    • 1987, Geoffrey Atkinson, Philip Quirk. The Australian Adventure: The Explorer′s Guide to the Island Continent, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=K9LiAAAAMAAJ&q=%22ringer%22|%22ringers%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&dq=%22ringer%22|%22ringers%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=d1YOUIfvEKi9iAe29oCIBw&redir_esc=y page 175],
      This vast holding is run by six ringers and six boys. A ringer is a qualified stationhand and a boy is a trainee. It takes four years for a boy to become a ringer.
    • 2005, Jake Drake, The Wild West in Australia and America, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=E2u1AGGkUXgC&pg=PA156&dq=%22ringer%22|%22ringers%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=d1YOUIfvEKi9iAe29oCIBw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22ringer%22|%22ringers%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false page 156],
      Most people associated with the Australian beef industry believe the ringer′s skill of throwing cattle by the tail to be a practice that is purely Australian. There is ample evidence however, that it was practised in South and Central America long before it was developed here.
Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

  1. (slang) Any person or thing that is fraudulent; a fake or impostor.
Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

  1. (UK, military, informal, in combination) An officer having the specified number of rings (denoting rank) on the uniform sleeve.
    • 2012, John Harris, The Lonely Voyage
      A group of naval one- and two-ringers were chatting by the office door with a few ratings, complete with kit-bags and oilskins.
    • 2013, Dudley Pope, Convoy
      The senior officer of the escort was an RN two and a half ringer who had a reputation of being one of the best.
Ringer
Proper noun
  1. Surname
Noun

ringer (plural ringers)

  1. (fandom slang) A fan of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and/or the film trilogy based on it.
    • 2001, Kathy Marks, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20011110003131/http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/story.jsp?story=104142 The campaign for real Tolkien]", The Independent, 10 November 2001:
      Readers flocked online to articulate their angst, discovering 400 websites where "Ringers" congregated to converse in Quenya – one of Tolkien's fictional languages – and discuss such burning issues as whether elves have pointy ears.
    • 2005, Jody Genessy, "Slamdance gets infusion of 'Lord of Rings' mania ↗", Deseret News, 27 January 2005:
      One Ringer travels all over and takes pictures of her "Lord of the Rings" figurines.
    • 2014, Mark Smith, "Sci-fi fans trek to city for Comic Con ↗", South Wales Echo, 3 March 2014:
      Trekkers, Whovians and Ringers were out in force over the weekend as sci-fi and fantasy fans descended on Cardiff for the city's Film and Comic Convention.
Synonyms

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