ringletn.
/ˈrɪŋlᵻt/, U.S. /ˈrɪŋlᵻt/ 1. A small ring made of metal or other material.
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the world > space > shape > curvature > roundness > [noun] > annular quality > ring > small
anlet1421
ringlet1555
circlet1585
annuletc1602
1555 W. Waterman tr. J. Boemus Fardle of Facions ii. xi. 250 A Bullockes hide..so set rounde aboute on the bordre, or verge, with ringlettes of iron.
1725 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey II. vii. 117 The ringlets that command the door.
1726 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey V. xxi. 76 Who first Ulysses' wondrous bow shall bend, And thro' twelve ringlets the fleet arrow send.
1795 E. Burke Lett. Peace Regic. France iv, in Sel. Wks. 313 This deficiency is made up by strengthening the first ringlet of the chain.
1813 T. Busby tr. Lucretius Nature of Things II. vi. 1255 Some things, as if by hooks and ringlets fixed, In junction hold.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. I. 353 I have sometimes seen them [sc. bougies] made of very finely polished ivory..with a ringlet at the base.
1864 H. W. Adams Bk. Job in Poetry xx. 346 With iron ringlets in the snouts they bore.
1911 Esterville (Iowa) Enterprise 23 Aug. Some of them had several iron ringlets in their ears, and as they were neither ornamental nor useful, I think they must have been put there for punishment.
1957 D. Wright tr. Beowulf v. 34 Each tough hand-linked coat of mail sparkled, and the shimmering ringlets of iron clinked in their corselets.
2005 Columbus (Ohio) Disp. (Nexis) 6 Nov. e4 The riveted metal ringlets in a well-preserved chain-mail shirt and the ornate, gilded patterning reveal the enormous energy and skill demanded of a master armorer.
2. A circular dance or course; a circle of dancers.
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society > leisure > dancing > types of dance or dancing > round dance > [noun]
carolc1300
carolingc1300
roundc1487
ring dancea1522
round dance1530
ringlet1600
roundel1600
round game1611
circle dance1821
ronde1823
ring play1856
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream ii. i. 86 To daunce our ringlets to the whistling winde. View more context for this quotation
1627 M. Drayton Quest of Cynthia in Battaile Agincourt 141 When Fayries in their Ringlets there Doe daunce their nightly Rounds.
1766 J. Beattie tr. J. Addison Battle Pygmies & Cranes in Poems Several Subj. 166 They foot it featly, ranged in ringlets gay.
1788 J. Hurdis Village Curate 38 The ringlet see Fantastically trod.
1867 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 85/1 The merry wanderers of the night tread their little ringlet on the dewy grass, and dance among flowers like fireflies.
1906 W. R. Nicoll & T. Seccombe Hist. Eng. Lit. (1907) I. ii. viii. 224 After they have all parted and said the last word, the fairies enter and dance a ringlet in the empty halls (music by Mendelssohn).
1959 C. L. Barber Shakespeare's Festive Comedy vi. 144 The fairies..show all the main characteristics of fairies in popular belief: they appear in the forest, at midnight, and leave at sunrise; they take children, dance in ringlets.
2008 C. M. Sauer Deus Ex Machina ii. 22 Holding my cousin's hands as we danced in ringlets around the columnar boot-clad legs..of relatives like giggling cherubs.
3. A circular appearance, marking, formation, part, or piece; spec. †a fairy ring.
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the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by habit > herb or herbaceous plant > [noun] > herbage or grass > fairy-ring
fairy circle1596
ringleta1616
fairy ground1627
fairy dance1676
fairy walk1687
fairy ring1712
fairy green1819
the world > space > shape > curvature > roundness > [noun] > annular quality > ring
ringeOE
circlec1305
cerceaus1340
hoop1530
hoop-ring1545
annulus1563
ringleta1616
annule1681
zone1752
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) v. i. 16 Ye, that on the sands with printlesse foote Doe chase the ebbing-Neptune, and doe flie him When he comes backe: you demy-Puppets, that By Moone-shine doe the greene sowre Ringlets make, Whereof the Ewe not bites.
1678 J. P. tr. J. Johnstone Descr. Nature Four-footed Beasts ii. ii. 38 In Moscovy in the deserts about the rivers Bonistenes, Tanais, and Rha, is a wild-sheep, they call it Seigios, about the row, but shorter-footed, with lofty strait-hornes, markt with ringlets.
1691 J. Dryden King Arthur iv. i. 38 The Ringlets round her Trunk declare her guilty Of many Midnight-Sabbaths Revell'd here.
1755 B. Martin Mag. Arts & Sci. 153 Now a small Ringlet appears; and this is more properly called a Central than a Total Eclipse of the Sun.
1796 S. T. Coleridge Songs of Pixies vi in Poems Var. Subj. 22 Or thro' the mystic ringlets of the vale We flash our faery feet in gamesome prank.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 220 Of a pale grey, sky-coloured ground, with brown undulatory ringlets.
1802 W. Paley Nat. Theol. xix. 353 The ringlets of which the proboscis of the bee is composed.
1821 Sporting Mag. 9 8 The numerous ringlets or circles on the downs, and on some pasture land.
1845 R. Browning Meeting at Night i The startled little waves that leap In fiery ringlets from their sleep.
1861 H. Macmillan Footnotes from Nature 256 Every one is familiar with the common campignon or Scotch bonnets, which form those sour ringlets in the grassy meadows popularly called fairy rings.
1980 Gourmet Feb. 17/1 Among the starters a copious insalata di frutti di mare was a lustrous mélange of tender seafood that included wafer-thin slices of conch and morsels of octopus along with the usual shrimp, mussels, and ringlets of squid.
1996 Big Issue 2 Sept. 22/4 The sea, by day is A lacy cascade of Shimmering ringlets, Sun-shining oceanids and angel-kissed foam.
4. A lock of hair hanging in a corkscrew-shaped curl. Also figurative.
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the world > life > the body > hair > hair of head > curl > [noun]
feak1548
lovelock1592
crisple1594
curl1604
cockle1608
crisp1638
ringlet1645
cockera1653
heartbreaker1654
moustache1662
confidenta1685
cruchea1685
passagerea1685
favourite1690
wimpler1724
cannon1774
whisker1786
favori1801
curlet1803
tendril1814
sausage curl1828
spit-curl1831
crimp1855
curdle1860
number sices1861
whiskerette1880
1645 J. Milton Arcades in Poems 54 To nurse the Saplings tall, and curl the grove With Ringlets quaint.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 306 Shee..Her unadorned golden tresses wore Dissheveld, but in wanton ringlets wav'd. View more context for this quotation
1712 A. Pope tr. Ovid Sapho to Phaon in tr. Ovid Epist. (ed. 8) 11 No more my Locks in Ringlets curl'd diffuse The costly Sweetness of Arabian Dews.
1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 81 Teeth for the toothless, ringlets for the bald.
1812 H. Smith & J. Smith Rejected Addr. 42 Break, Amphion, break your slumbers, Natures ringlets deck the thorn.
1837 E. Bulwer-Lytton Ernest Maltravers I. i. viii. 84 Maltravers smiled, and stroked those beautiful ringlets.
1870 J. G. Austin Shadow of Moloch Mountain xxiii. 61 Beatrice, meanwhile, had filled her pretty black silk apron with long ringlets of pineshavings.
1873 J. A. Symonds Stud. Greek Poets xii. 408 His rich hair ripples in ringlets between cheek and shoulder.
1920 C. Carswell Open Door! i. i. 11 Though he was now ten, his mother had not yet had the heart to cut the fair effeminate ringlets which reach the collar of his sailor suit.
1975 B. Bainbridge Sweet William i. 15 The yellow ringlets bounced, exposing a white neck and a small brown mole.
2004 Hairstyle Summer 14 From thick waves to tight ringlets—if you're a curly top, we've got the 'do for you.
5. Any of numerous brown satyrid butterflies that typically have an arc of small eyespots on the wings, esp. Aphantopus hyperantus of Eurasia, and (with distinguishing word) any member of the genera Erebia. Also (chiefly North American): any butterfly of the genus Coenonympha, esp. the large heath, C. tullia. marsh ringlet, mountain ringlet, etc.: see the first element.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Rhopalocera (butterflies) > [noun] > family Satyridae > genus Hipparchia > hipparchia hyperanthus (ringlet)
ringlet1766
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Rhopalocera (butterflies) > [adjective] > of or relating to member of Satyridae > of hipparchia hyperanthus
ringlet1879
1766 M. Harris Aurelian 74 Ringlet. This Butterfly generally appears about the 20th of June, flying in company with the meadow brown.
1812 Haworth in Trans. Entomol. Soc. 1 332 Hero. Papilio (silver-bordered Ringlet). Mnemon...(the small Ringlet).
1879 J. Lubbock Sci. Lect. ii. 49 Hipparchia hyperanthus (the ringlet butterfly) also has whitish caterpillars.
1929 W. Martin N.Z. Nature Bk. I. 146 Tussock Ringlet (Argyrophenga antipodum).—This South Island butterfly is commonly seen flitting..among the tussocks of the hill country.
1951 A. B. Klots Field Guide Butterflies 70 A number of Ringlets occur in North America... Recent work has shown that nearly all are best considered as subspecies of the Palæarctic tullia.
1984 R. M. Pyle Audubon Soc. Handbk. for Butterfly Watchers xi. 124 Recently I watched a ringlet nectaring on a buttercup for several minutes before a fly bestirred it.
2003 Org. Gardening Sept. 13/3 Butterflies such as ringlets, gatekeepers and meadow browns are just a few of the creatures that benefit from this beautiful habitat.
6. Astronomy. Each of numerous very narrow rings around Saturn, many of which make up a major ring, while others lie in the gaps between major rings; a similar feature around any of the other giant planets.
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1977 Icarus 31 385/2 Saturn's rings probably consist of optically thick monolayer ringlets.
1981 Times 10 Apr. 15/6 The classical A, B and C rings [of Saturn]..actually consist of hundreds of small ringlets.
1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 539/2 These narrow ringlets [around Uranus]..first suggested the idea of shepherding satellites.
2006 Nature 19 Oct. 729/2 One particularly bright ringlet, they say, may be the remains of a recently shattered moon.
Compounds
(In sense 4).† ringlet shower n. Obsolete
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1849 M. Arnold Strayed Reveller, & Other Poems 78 Come, bind up those ringlet showers!
1882 Ballou's Monthly Mag. July 53/1 Standing in gray-pillared balcony, Cluster of orange-tinted trumpet-flower Touching the raven-hued ringlet shower, Rose in her clear cheek sweeter glows.
ringlet snake n.
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1868 Ld. Tennyson Lucretius in Macmillan's Mag. May 8 A truth That..numbs the Fury's ringlet-snake.
1994 P. Anthony Harpy Thyme (1995) ii. 28 The Gorgon seemed slightly uncomfortable; her ringlet snakes were panting.
ringlet tossing n. and adj.
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1793 W. Wordsworth Descr. Sketches 132 Lip-dewing song, and ringlet-tossing dance.
1925 J. M. Pryse tr. Euripides Adorers of Dionysos i. 63 If I lay hold Of him within these walls, I'll quickly stop His thyrsus-clashing and his ringlet-tossing.
2000 Times (Nexis) 21 July Only have respect, gentlemen, and desist from pinching the shapely bottom of any beautiful, pouty, ringlet-tossing blonde who might happen to be dancing onstage next to him.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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