d. 1556. Udall [Smyth Palmer]. A ragman's rewe . . . we call a long geste that railleth on any person by name or toucheth a bodyes honesty somewhat near.
1753. Richardson, Sir Chas. Grandison, iv. iv. You must all of you go in one rig-my-roll way, in one beaten track.
1757. Foote, Author, ii. You are always running on with your riggmon-*rowles, and won't stay to hear a body's story out.
1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1st S., No. xii., 203. Mrs. Blair has been writing us a strange rigmarole, which nobody can make head or tail of.
Rigol (or Rigil).—See Rig, subs. 1.
Rile (Roil or Royle), verb. (old).—To
vex; to irritate; to disturb.
Hence rily = cross-grained;
rilement = ill temper. [Originally
= to make turbid.] Fr.
cavaler (or courir) sur le haricot.
1656-8. Gurnall, Christian in Armour, 111. 296. There are dregs enough within to royle and distemper the spirit.
1740. North, Examen, 350. The lamb down stream roiled the wolf's water above. Ibid., Lives of the Norths, 1. 415. He took a turn or two in his dining room and said nothing, by which I perceived that his spirits were very much roiled.
1843. Dickens, Chuzzlewit, xxi. My feller critters . . . rile up rough, along of my objecting to their selling Eden off too cheap.
1847. Robb, Squatter Life, 64. I gin to git riley. Ibid., 31. Rile him up, and sot his liver workin?
1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers, . . . We begin to think it's natur To take sarse and not be riled.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, lxiv. What vexed and "riled" him (to use his own expression) was the infernal indifference and cowardly ingratitude of Clavering.
1883. Sat. Rev., 13 Jan., 42, 2. It is not surprising that . . . they [his speeches] "riled" some of Sir Charles's political friends not a little. But it was perhaps a little surprising that the rilement was so little manifested among Sir Charles's audiences.
RIMBLE-RAMBLE, subs. phr. (old).—Nonsense:
as adj. = nonsensical.
1690. Pagan Prince [Nares]. The greatest part of the task was only rimble-ramble discourse.
Rinder, subs. (Queen's University).—An
outsider.
RINER. TO SHED RINERS WITH A
whaver, verb. phr. (old).—To
cap; to surpass.
Ring, subs. (venery).—1. The female
pudendum: also Hairy
ring, Hans Carvels Ring
(q.v.) and Black-ring. Hence
CRACKED (or CLIPPED) IN THE
ring = seduced.
1597. Lyly, Woman in Moon, iii. 2. Lear. Will Pandora be thus light? Gun. If she were twenty graines lighter I would not refuse her, provided alwayes She be CLIPT WITHIN THE RING.
1613. Beaumont and Fletcher, Captain. Come to be married to my lady's woman, After she's crack'd in the ring.
1622. Atley, Book of Airs, s.v.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 111. xxviii. Never fail to have continually the ring of thy wife's Commodity upon thy finger.
1660. Watson, Cheerful Airs, s.v.
c. 1700. Prior, Hans Carvel. Hans took the ring . . . And, thrusting it beyond his joint, 'Tis done, he cry'd'. . . 'What's done, you drunken bear, You've thrust your finger God knows where!'
2. (colloquial).—A place set apart for, or a concourse engaged in, some specific object: as (racing) = (1) an enclosure used for betting, and (2) the bookmakers therein; (pugilists') = (3) the circle, square, or parallelogram within which a fight takes place: hence The Prize ring = the world of pugilists; (horse-
