ringer
ringer Lexical Profile
ringer Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person or device that rings, such as a church bell-ringer or the mechanism in a telephone or alarm clock that produces a ringing sound.
"She switched the ringer on her cell phone to silent before entering the lecture hall."
An athlete, racehorse, or competitor fraudulently entered into a contest under false pretenses, or a highly skilled outsider brought into a group to ensure victory.
"The opposing softball team was accused of bringing in a ringer who had played professionally in college."
A person or thing that closely resembles another, especially in the phrase 'dead ringer'.
"With his beard and glasses, the actor was a dead ringer for the historical figure he portrayed."
A thrown horseshoe or quoit that lands so as to encircle the stake.
"He won the game of horseshoes on his final pitch by throwing a perfect ringer."
Word Nuance & Usage
Do not confuse 'ringer' with the homophone 'wringer', which refers to a device for squeezing water out of wet laundry (and appears in the idiom 'put through the wringer').
• Rhymes for ringer
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Derived from the verb 'ring' plus the agent suffix '-er'. The slang sense of an illicit substitute or impostor originated in late 19th-century horse racing from the phrase 'ring in', meaning to fraudulently substitute a superior horse for an inferior one.