name
Meaning 1
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
ringer
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈɹɪŋə(ɹ)/
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Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɪŋə(ɹ)
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CMU ARPABET: R IH1 NG ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
Someone who rings, especially a bell ringer.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A crowbar.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: business, mining
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A person who places rings or bands on a bird's leg.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: biology, natural-sciences, ornithology
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A stockman, a cowboy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia
Examples
- 1964, Alec Bolton, Walkabout′s Australia, Walkabout magazine, 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.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
In the game of horseshoes, the event of the horseshoe landing around the pole.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
A game of marbles where players attempt to knock each other's marbles out of a ring drawn on the ground.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Topics: games
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
A top performer.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 9
The champion shearer of a shearing shed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 10
Any person or thing that is fraudulent; a fake or impostor.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 11
A person highly proficient at a skill or sport who is brought in, often fraudulently, to supplement a team.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports
Examples
- Near-synonym: hustler
- In this next clip from the security camera, we see that the rube flashing his wad of cash thinks he'll win, but he doesn't realize that the guy in the gray shirt is a ringer.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: hustler
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 12
A horse fraudulently entered in a race using the name of another horse.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: hobbies, horse-racing, horseracing, horses, lifestyle, pets, racing, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 13
A fraudulently cloned (or cut-and-shut) motor vehicle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 14
A person, animal, or entity which resembles another so closely as to be taken for the other; a look-alike (now usually in the phrase dead ringer).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- That man over there is an exact ringer for my father!
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dead ringer
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 15
An officer having the specified number of rings (denoting rank) on the uniform sleeve.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, in-compounds, informal
Topics: government, military, politics, war
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 16
A ringer T-shirt.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 17
A fan of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and/or the film trilogy based on it.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
Topics: lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 18
(horseshoes) the successful throw of a horseshoe or quoit so as to encircle a stake or peg
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: throw
noun
Meaning 19
a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: imposter, impostor, pretender, fake, faker, fraud, sham, shammer, pseudo, pseud, role player
noun
Meaning 20
a person who is almost identical to another
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dead ringer, clone
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: double, image, look-alike
noun
Meaning 21
a person who rings church bells (as for summoning the congregation)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: toller, bell ringer
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: signaler, signaller
History
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English Ryngere, from ryngere (“bell-ringer”).
From Middle English ringere, rynger, ryngar, equivalent to ring (“to sound a bell”) + -er.
From ring (“to surround”) + -er.
Unknown. Probably so named after the custom of ringing a bell to denote the winner of a contest or competition.
Some senses may derive from ring the changes (“run through variations; enliven; pass counterfeit money; trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change”).
Unclear. Compare ring of truth, and see the "fake, impostor" sense at Etymology 4.
From ring + -er, from the noun.
From ring + -er.
Real reading context