ringling

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of ringle

plural ringlings

1. countabledialectalobsoleteuncountableRinging.

   Court. You heard nothing but a ſtroke fall upon the man? No, nothing elſe ; the laſt ſtroke made more ringling than the reſt ; the two firſt ſounded hollow, as if they were upon the bed cloaths.

   1780, “The ſame Jury as were impannelled Yeſterday; Sunday Morning”, in The Trials, at Large of W. Henry Turton, and Luke West for the Murder of Charles Gutherson, In the Pariſh of Chatam; […] , Rochester: […] T. Fisher, page 30

   2 more examples

   It is this:—After the descending weight may have unlocked the trap, and it has “ gone off,” that there will not be sufficient power in the mechanism of the bell to keep up a continued ringling for any time; it cannot possibly make any more noise than the quick ring of an ordinary bell, and therefore will not answer the purpose of your alarmists.

   1837 August 26, Jingle, “Improved Alarums”, in The Penny Mechanic and the Chemist, volume II, number XLIV, page 26

   The intensely Irish character of the air stimulated me to endeavour that the words should partake of that quality, and the rapid replication of the musical phrases made me strive after as rapid a ringling of rhyme, of which our early bards were so fond, […]

   1858, Samuel Lover, “Molly Carew”, in Samuel Lover, editor, The Lyrics of Ireland, London: Houlston and Wright, page 94

1. A surname, notably that of a circus owning family.
2. An unincorporated community in Meagher County, Montana, United States, named after John Ringling.
3. A town in Jefferson County, Oklahoma, United States, also named after John Ringling.