| 释义 |
▪ I. ringer1|ˈrɪŋə(r)|
[f. ring n.1 or v.1 Occurs earlier in the comb. hog-ringer: see hog n. 13.]
1. Curling. ‘A stone which lies within the ring that surrounds the tee’ (Jamieson, 1825).
2. Quoits. A quoit so thrown that it encloses the pin aimed at; a throw of this kind.
1863Tyneside Songs 86 Harle shapes just like this when puttin on a ringer. 1886Encycl. Brit. XX. 189/2 Such a success is termed a ‘ringer’, and two is scored.
3. Mining.
a. A crow-bar.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Ringer, a miner's name for a crow bar. 1879Cheshire Sheaf I. 322 (E.D.D.), Ringer, an iron or steel lever, usually about four feet long. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Ringer and Chain (M.), see Dog and Chain. [An iron lever with a chain attached by which props are withdrawn from the goaf.]
b. ‘A hammer for driving wedges’ (Gresley).
4. A fox, etc., which runs in a ring when hunted. (Cf. ring v.1 1 c.)
1891Field 7 Mar. 331/2 That good sportsman.., among many foxes, has one or two long-distance runners in his coverts. However, on this occasion their place was taken by a brace of ringers.
5. a. Austral. and N.Z. (See quot. 1890.)
1871‘R. Boldrewood’ in Cornh. Mag. XXIII. 85 The ‘Ringer’, or fastest shearer of the whole assembly. 1888― Robbery under Arms I. ix. 110 Jim..was trying to shear sheep and sheep with the ‘ringer’ of the shed. 1890Melbourne Argus 20 Sept. 13/6 It is highly necessary to have a good ‘ringer’ at the head of the men; a ‘ringer’ being the man who..shears the highest number of sheep per day. 1894E. W. Hornung Boss of Taroomba vii, They call him the ringer of the shed, miss... That means the fastest shearer..—the man who runs rings round the rest, eh? 1910C. E. W. Bean On Wool Track 196 The man who shears most sheep is the ‘ringer’. 1927M. M. Bennett Christison xxii. 193 With the new shearing machines a hundred sheep a day were shorn easily, while ringers scored over two hundred. 1934T. Wood Cobbers 196 He can shear a hundred a day: a hundred and twenty, a hundred and fifty; two hundred—even three hundred and twenty, at times, if he is a Ringer—that is the quickest of the team. 1952J. Cleary Sundowners iii. 138 By the end of the day he wanted to be the ‘ringer’ shearer. 1963N. Hilliard Piece of Land 90 The ringer of the Maori shearing gang that year had been Keko. 1965N.Z. Listener 26 Feb. 15/2 In shed shearing the position of ‘Ringer’ is sought after and competition among shearers has always been keen.
b. An expert. Austral. slang.
1918C. J. Dennis Digger Smith 112 Ringer, expert. 1923‘B. L. Standish’ Lego Lamb, Southpaw iii. 26 ‘That guy's a ringer,’ declared Shultz. c1926‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 24 For I'm classed among the ‘ringers’, And from others stand apart. 1943Amer. Speech XVIII. 256 With Americans a ringer is a double; here [sc. in Australia] he is an expert. 1965Telegraph (Brisbane) 5 July 8 Ringer (the best—old shearing-shed term later adopted by townies).
6. One who rings birds.
1909Brit. Birds III. 5 Any finder of a ring so marked should realise that communication with the ‘ringer’ is intended. 1946Ibid. XXXIX. 260 The ringer probably keeps a sharper look-out for dead birds than the ordinary person. 1966Punch 14 Dec. 897/3 Ringers try to recapture each bird in colonies of sea birds for an annual ring check, and quite often they catch the same bird each year for six years or more in their gardens. 1978P. Conder RSPB Guide to Birdwatching 103 In the early days when there were few ringers, most of the birds were recovered dead but as more ringers took part in the scheme..so the numbers of live recoveries increased.
7. Austral. A stockman; a station hand.
1909J. X. A. Cameron Spell of Bush (1910) 48 Dam-sinkers, fencers, scrub-cutters, ringers, and other men doing contract work in the vicinity. 1942C. Barrett On Wallaby i. 14 ‘Jim the Ringer’ came in every month for ‘a bender’. 1953‘N. Shute’ In Wet x. 348 His camp consisted of..a humpy shelter made of gum tree boughs for his white ringer, Phil Fleming. 1954B. Miles Stars my Blanket xxiii. 204 The stockman—or ‘ringer’ as he is called—rides into the yard with a lassoo and ‘rings’ his bullock in true wild-west style. 1964Sunday Mail Mag. (Brisbane) 27 Sept. 3/1 A ringer..is a Queensland stockman who holds his cattle during a muster by ‘ringing’ them on horse-back. 1977Telegraph (Brisbane) 12 Jan. 3/1 The pub, local waterhole for stockmen, ringers and station hands.
8. colloq. An officer in an air force; a member of an air-crew. Also with preceding numeral, indicating rank.
The use is derived from the rings indicating rank worn on the sleeve of an officer.
1943C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake 51 Pilot Officer is a ‘Half-ringer’, and Squadron Leader a ‘Two and a half ringer’. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. 163 Ringer, an officer. 1976‘A. Hall’ Kobra Manifesto v. 65 One of the air-crew, a two-ringer.
▪ II. ringer2|ˈrɪŋə(r)|
[f. ring v.2 + -er1. Cf. Da. ringer, Sw. ringare, Icel. hringjari.]
1. One who rings; esp. a bell- or change-ringer.
c1425Found. St. Bartholomew's (E.E.T.S.) 5 The seker shall fynde, and the rynger or knokker shall entre. 1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 126 Item, to the ryngers of seynt Tanlonys cherch iiij.d. 1531Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 24 In brede and aill to the ringers. 1582Stanyhurst æneis, etc. (Arb.) 156 In thee chappel hee was..such a lowd singer, in a thowsand not such a ringer. 1683Tryon Way to Health 481 We have no need of those robustick Musitians, viz. Ringers, to call the People to worship. 1707Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 34 Dr. John Blackborne..was formerly noted for a great Ringer. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xlvi, The ringers were practising in a neighbouring church. 1859–64Tennyson Grandmother xv, The ringers rang with a will, and he gave the ringers a crown.
2. A mechanical device for ringing a bell.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1944/2 Ringer, a chiming or bell-ringing apparatus. a1890Electr. Rev. XV. xvi. 3 (Cent.), A novel feature of this bell is that the ringer and gongs are inside of the case.
3. U.S. slang. A horse or other competitor fraudulently substituted for another in a race or other sporting activity; one who engages in a fraud of this kind.
1890Stock Grower & Farmer 9 Aug. 8/2 At the same time ‘Andy Croker’ is the most notorious ‘ringer’ on the turf. 1914‘High Jinks, Jr.’ Choice Slang 17 Ringer, a name applied to a man or horse dishonestly entered in an event with others far below his class and a class in which he could not be entered legitimately. 1928Foy & Harlow Clowning through Life 188 We had scarcely made the match when we were given a secret tip that Bennett was a ‘ringer’. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 98/1 Ringer, a race horse who has been substituted under the name of another horse in a race. 1938M. Lane Edgar Wallace iii. v. 304 He was an attractive young man, known in his own profession as ‘Ringer’ Barrie for his ability to ring the changes of disguise on race-horses. 1944Fortune Sept. 140/2 The chance that ‘ringers’—good horses masquerading as poor ones under assumed names—can be sneaked into races. 1958Sun (Baltimore) 15 Aug. 20/2 Evidence..tends to show that it was not a horse called Bye Bye Will that won that race but a ‘ringer’. 1966Listener 27 Oct. 613/3 He rode third in a regimental steeplechase: the winning horse was later found to be a ringer. 1973B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years xxi. 240 Some teams used to bring in ringers, a Yankee, or a guy from the East. 1980Times 11 Mar. 6 The Crown claimed that the horse had been switched and that the winner was in fact a ‘ringer’, a more successful stablemate called Cobblers March.
4. to be a (dead) ringer for (or of): to resemble closely; to be an exact counterpart of. slang (orig. U.S.).
1891Sporting Times (N.Y.) 4 July 10/4 Homan is a ‘dead-ringer’ for Anson. 1900Ade More Fables 162 Bob..was a Ringer for a United States Senator, all except the White Coat. 1903‘O. Henry’ in Ainslee's Mar. 129/2 The man was a ringer for the pictures of the fat Weary Willie in the funny papers. 1916J. Buchan Greenmantle xiii. 174 Now you're in these pretty clothes you're the dead ringer of the brightest kind of American engineer. 1946New Yorker 16 Mar. 22/1 The Nissen hut..which were [sic] dead ringers for the council lodges the Iroquois Indians used to build. 1954Wodehouse in Encounter Nov. 43/2 We also felt like minor infusoria at the bottom of a well. ‘Wodehouse,’ I remember saying to myself more than once, ‘Alter your appearance very slightly, and you would be a ringer for a waterbeetle.’ 1959Punch 21 Oct. 251/1 He [sc. a shark] has life pretty easy and apart from the gill-rakers is a ringer for Patrick Joseph. 1960B. Keaton My Wonderful World of Slapstick 122 Going through the casting book we found a man and woman who were dead ringers for the Belgian rulers. 1970‘T. Coe’ Wax Apple xii. 89 Doctor Fredric Cameron..was an almost dead ringer for J. Roger Urbermann. 1973C. Sagan Cosmic Connection xiii. 92 There is little doubt that the average person's view of Hell—sizzling, choking, sulfurous, and red—is a dead ringer for the surface of Venus.
5. U.S. slang. An outsider or intruder; an imposter, spec. one who attaches himself to a political or other group to which he does not belong.
1896Ade Artie xi. 100 About a dozen ringers followed us in and stood around rubberin'. 1904N.Y. Tribune 18 Oct. 1 The members of the Manhattan & Democratic clubs occupied front seats. The press seats were largely occupied by ringers. Ibid. 8 Nov. 3 The Democratic leaders to-day started to send a lot of alleged ‘ringers’ across the line into West Virginia to vote to-morrow. 1926Clues Nov. 162/1 Ringer, one who butts in on another's racket. 1928Manch. Guardian Weekly 26 Oct. 335/2 Perhaps seventy-five were really newspaper men and women, the others being what the American language calls ‘ringers’, ‘gate-crashers’, or ‘dead-heads’. 1940Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets 59 Too often, when you introduce a ringer into a gaggle of Pekes, there ensues a scrap like New Year's Eve in Madrid. 1963S. Greer Metropolitics v. 104 We have omitted the ‘ringer’; none of our respondents claimed to recognize the spurious name. 1965M. Bradbury Stepping Westward vii. 357 This is quite a party. I'm going to feel a real ringer. 1978Detroit Free Press 2 Apr. (Detroit Suppl.) 8/1 Inside the lobby of the dilapidated building, Blow Dry scans the inhabitants, hoping..that no one will spot her as the ringer. 1981C. R. Lajeunesse Dead Man Running xi. 35 A ringer for you will be leaving your place, same car, same registration.
6. slang. A false registration plate attached to a stolen motor vehicle; a thief who uses these.
1962New Statesman 21 Dec. 899/1 The driver stays with the car regardless, and the car is equipped with ringers (false number-plates). 1964E. Parr Grafters All ii. 25 The car is now driven to a hideaway, where ringers (false number-plates) are substituted. 1970P. Laurie Scotland Yard iii. 69 All the ringer has to do is buy a [car] key, come along as innocent as pie, open the door and drive off to wherever he does his ringing. 1971Drive Summer 21/2 When the professionals—the car ‘ringers’—get to work, the profit on a skilfully doctored vehicle can be more than {pstlg}500. 1971Road Ahead (Brisbane) Sept. 18 In Britain, ‘ringers’ produce very special cars. ‘Ringers’ are experts in modifying stolen cars, giving them a new identity.
7. ringer-up. A person making a telephone call; = caller n. 1 f. Cf. ring v.2 10 b.
1963N. Marsh Dead Water (1964) v. 117 The ringer-up was Miss Cost. 1968P. Dickinson Skin Deep v. 104, I don't take on casual ringers-up. 1970Y. Carter Mr. Campion's Falcon xxii. 161 The lunatic fringe—the compulsive ringers-up.
▪ III. ringer
obs. form of wringer. |