ring in meaning: definition, quotations

ring in

verbalso spelled ring-in

To make a phone call to (this place).

To celebrate by ringing of bells or as if by ringing of the bells.

noun

A replacement made at the last minute, often in a sporting context.

A racehorse or greyhound fraudulently substituted for another in a race.

An outsider.

"But I couldn't get into an underground contract party because I'm a ring-tail, or ring-in." That means an outsider, one not born in Broken Hill.1967, Elspeth Huxley, Their Shining Eldorado: A Journey through Australia, page 97:

A person pretending to be someone else; an imposter.

verb

To encircle, to surround in a ring, engirdle.

T'other day as Apollo sat pitching his darts / Through the clouds of November, by fits and by starts, / He began to consider how long it had been, / Since the bards of Old England had all been rung in.1814, [Leigh Hunt], “The Feast of the Poets”, in The Feast of the Poets, […], London: […] [Carew Henry Reynell] for James Cawthorn, […], →OCLC, page 1:
Attend now, my braves. I have mustered ye all round this capstan; and ye mates, flank me with your lances; and ye harpooneers, stand there with your irons; and ye, stout mariners, ring me in, that I may in some sort revive a noble custom of my fisherman fathers before me.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXXVI, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

2 more examples

All the world was only the two Copleigh girls, Saumarez and I, ringed in with the lightning and the dark; and the guidance of this misguided world seemed to lie in my hands.1888, Kipling, False Dawn:
He was ringed in on all sides by a solid circle of gleaming red sparks that shone from the grass. Held back by their fear, the graveyard rats surrounded him, squealing their hate.1936, Robert Howard, Graveyard Rats:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for ring in and ring-in.