ring in
English
Etymology 1
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Verb
ring in (third-person singular simple present rings in, present participle ringing in, simple past rang in, past participle rung in)
- To make a phone call to (this place).
- John has just rung in sick. He won't be back til Monday, he says.
- (transitive) To celebrate by ringing of bells or as if by ringing of the bells.
- We will ring in the New Year at a ski resort.
Synonyms
Etymology 2
Verb
ring in (third-person singular simple present rings in, present participle ringing in, simple past and past participle ringed in)
- (transitive) To encircle, to surround in a ring, engirdle.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 36”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- Attend now, my braves. I have mustered ye all round this capstan; and ye mates, flank me with your lances; and ye harpooneers, stand there with your irons; and ye, stout mariners, ring me in, that I may in some sort revive a noble custom of my fisherman fathers before me.
- 1888, Kipling, False Dawn:
- All the world was only the two Copleigh girls, Saumarez and I, ringed in with the lightning and the dark; and the guidance of this misguided world seemed to lie in my hands.
- 1936, Robert Howard, Graveyard Rats:
- He was ringed in on all sides by a solid circle of gleaming red sparks that shone from the grass. Held back by their fear, the graveyard rats surrounded him, squealing their hate.