ringleader
noun/ˈɹɪŋˌliːdəɹ/
Etymology From ring + leader.
1
A leader of a group of people, especially an unofficial group.
- Once, on a confident whim, I approached the group of popular girls in an attempt to broaden my circle. Their ringleader took one glance at my new Aeropostale T-shirt and whispered to her clones, “Yeah, Aero's definitely out now.”2017, Allyson Kennedy, Can't Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl:
2
A person who starts and leads a disturbance (such as a riot), a conspiracy, or a criminal gang.
- The police arrested the ringleaders of the smuggling operation.
- A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent, / Under the countenance and confederacy / Of Lady Eleanor, the protector's wife, / The ringleader and head of all this rout, / Have practis'd dangerously against your state...1590, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 2:
1 more example
- The ringleaders of the gang were eventually hanged at Tyburn.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 203:
- Derived terms
- ringleadership