Meanings
ring in1
present singular third person rings in · participle present ringing in · past rang in · participle past rung in
- To make a phone call to (this place).
John has just rung in sick. He won't be back till Monday, he says.
- transitiveTo 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: call in
ring in2
present singular third person rings in · participle present ringing in · participle past ringed in · past ringed in
- transitiveTo encircle, to surround in a ring, engirdle.
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.
1888, Kipling, False Dawn3 more examples
T'other day as Apollo sat pitching his darts / Through the clouds of November, by fits and by starts, / He began to consider how long it had been, / Since the bards of Old England had all been rung in.
1814, [Leigh Hunt], “The Feast of the Poets”, in The Feast of the Poets, […], London: […] [Carew Henry Reynell] for James Cawthorn, […], →OCLC, page 1Attend 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.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXXVI, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLCHe 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.
1936, Robert Howard, Graveyard Rats
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo celebrate by ringing of bells or as if by ringing of the bells.
Cite this entry
ring in. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ring%20in
“ring in.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ring%20in. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ring in,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ring%20in.
Source: ring in on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.