dealers') = (4) the space within which horses are exhibited at fair, market, or auction; (general) = (5) a combination for controlling a market or political measure; in America a trust.—B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785). Hence RINGMAN = a BOOKMAKER (q.v.).
1705. Farquhar, Twin Rivals, i. 1. I fly at nobler game; the Ring, the Court, Pawlett's and the Park.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 57. Ruffian'd the reeling youngsters round the Ring.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ii. Cold water and . . . vinegar applied . . . by the bottle-holders in a modern ring.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, 1. ii. 'Will any one do anything about Hybiscus?' sang out a gentleman in the ring at Epsom.
1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xix. One day, in the ring, Rawdon's Stanhope came in sight.
1855. Taylor, Still Waters, ii. 1. I should have done better to have stuck by Tattersall's and the Turf. The Ring are sharp fellows.
1857. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ix. No ringmen to force the betting and deafen you with their blatant proffers.
1871. Manchester Guardian, 23 Dec. 'American Rings and Lobbyists.' The modern political ring he described as a combination of selfish bad men, formed for their own pecuniary advancement.
1877. Nation, xiii. 333 [Century]. A [political] Ring is, in its common form, a small number of persons who get possession of an administrative machine, and distribute the offices or other good things connected with it among a band of fellows, of greater or less dimensions, who agree to divide with them whatever they make.
1888. D. Chronicle, 12 July. The victory was very popular, and by the success of Satiety the ring sustained a severe blow.
3. (old).—'Money extorted by Rogues on the High-way, or by Gentlemen Beggers.'—B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).
Verb. (common).—1. To manipulate; spec. to change: e.g., TO RING CASTORS = to exchange hats (Grose); to ring the changes = (1) to substitute bad money for good; and (2) so to bustle that change is given wrong.—Grose (1785); Vaux (1812).
1678. Butler, Hudibras, 111. iii. The skill To wind and manage it at will . . . And ring the changes upon cases.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 4. The changes were just beginning to ring upon some new subject.
1828. Bee, Liv. Pict. London, 45. Jarvis . . . after turning your money over and over . . . declares they ring bad, and you must change them for good ones. If you appear tolerably 'soft,' and will 'stand it,' he perhaps refuses these also, after having rung the changes once more. This is called a double do.
2. (thieves').—See quot.
1863. Cornhill Mag., vii. 91. When housebreakers are disturbed and have to abandon their plunder they say that they have rung themselves.
3. (Australian).—To patrol cattle by riding round and round them. Also to ring up.
4. (American).—To create a disturbance; to racket (q.v.).
5. (old).—To talk: spec. to scold: of women.—Grose.
Phrases.—To ring the horseshoes (tailors') = to welcome a man returning from a drinking bout; TO GO through the ring = to go bankrupt, to be WHITEWASHED (q.v.); TO ring IN (American) = (1) to quote; to implicate, (2) to get the better of, (3) in gaming, to add to (or substitute) cards in a pack surreptitiously: whence TO ring in A cold deck = to substitute a prepared pack of cards; CRACKED IN THE RING = (1) flawed; (2) see subs., sense 1; TO COME ON THE RING = to take one's turn; TO take the mantle and ring = to vow perpetual widowhood. Also see Ball.
