Biology, Natural sciences, Ornithology A person who places rings or bands on a bird's leg.
It is difficult to classify them precisely, but, in roughly ascending order of productivity, we now recognise the purely chance observer, the locality regulars (now recognising that ‘time in’ eventually equals ‘rarity out’), the ringers (particularly when working in groups), the occasional tally-hunter (most of us, if we are honest), the full-time observatory workers (exhibiting the highest standards of discipline) and the growing group of full-blooded rarity collectors (self-styled ‘twitchers’, covering individually up to 30,000 miles in their annual pursuit of ‘lifers’).1970, D.I.M. Wallace, “The first ten years of the Rarities Committee”, in British Birds, volume 63, number 3, London, page 124:
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.
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.1987, Geoffrey Atkinson, Philip Quirk., The Australian Adventure: The Explorer′s Guide to the Island Continent, page 175:
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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.2005, Jake Drake, The Wild West in Australia and America, page 156:
3
Games In the game of horseshoes, the event of the horseshoe landing around the pole.
4
Games A game of marbles where players attempt to knock each other's marbles out of a ring drawn on the ground.
Ringer
noun
Etymology From ring + -er.
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LifestyleSlang A fan of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and/or the film trilogy based on it.
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.2001 November 10, Kathy Marks, “The campaign for real Tolkien”, in The Independent:
One Ringer travels all over and takes pictures of her "Lord of the Rings" figurines.2005 January 27, Jody Genessy, “Slamdance gets infusion of 'Lord of Rings' mania”, in Deseret News:
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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.2014 March 3, Mark Smith, “Sci-fi fans trek to city for Comic Con”, in South Wales Echo:
Australia The champion shearer of a shearing shed.
Click goes his shears; click, click, click. Wide are the blows, and his hand is moving quick, The ringer looks round, for he lost it by a blow, And he curses that old shearer with the bare belled ewe.1891 December 5, The Bacchus Marsh Express, Victoria, page 7, column 7:
Etymology Some senses may derive from ring the changes (“run through variations; enliven; pass counterfeit money; trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change”).
1
Slang Any person or thing that is fraudulent; a fake or impostor.
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Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A person highly proficient at a skill or sport who is brought in, often fraudulently, to supplement a team.
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.
UK, Slang A fraudulently cloned (or cut-and-shut) motor vehicle.
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.2020, Tom Hartley, Tom Hartley: The Dealmaker:
ringer
noun
Etymology Unclear. Compare ring of truth, and see the "fake, impostor" sense at Etymology 4.
1
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).
That man over there is an exact ringer for my father!
I mean, he knows we never handed off the briefcase, but he never asked for it back. The million bucks was never in the briefcase! The asshole was hoping that they would kill her! You threw out a ringer for a ringer!1998, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, The Big Lebowski (motion picture), spoken by The Dude (Jeff Bridges):
A group of naval one- and two-ringers were chatting by the office door with a few ratings, complete with kit-bags and oilskins.2012, John Harris, The Lonely Voyage:
The senior officer of the escort was an RN two and a half ringer who had a reputation of being one of the best.2013, Dudley Pope, Convoy:
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A ringer T-shirt.
[…] shabby baseball caps, faded and worn-out T-shirts, ringers and polos with artificially aged hems […]2007, Descant, number 138, page 28:
The shirts were light blue heather ringers with royal blue trim on the necks and sleeves.2011, Buck Peden, Baseball, Golf, Wars, Women & Puppies: An Autobiography, page 278: