Plaine Percevall, in Brand's Pop

Antiq., II. 27, note. The ring, the prize-ring, pugilism and those connected with pugilism. The Ring was his chief delight, and a well-fought battle between two accomplished bruisers caused his heart to leap with joy. W. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, p. 73. To come on the ringt, to take one's turn. Judge infernal Mynos, of Crete Kynge, Now cometh thy lotte! now comestow on the rynge ! Nat oonly for thy sake writen ys this story. Chaucer, Good Women, 1. 1887. To ride, run, or tilt at the ring, an exercise much in vogue in the sixteenth century in Europe, and replacing to a certain extent the justs or tilts of armed knights one against another. It was for the nobility nearly what the quintain or similar games of tilting were for the people. A ring was suspended at a height, and the horsemen rode at it with a light spear with which they tried to carry it off. 'Tis not because the ring they ride, And Lindesay at the ring rides well. Scott , L. of L. M., vi. 23. To take the mantle and ring. See mantle . Tracheal rings, in an at , and zool ., the rings or hoops of cartilage (sometimes of bone) which are situated in the walls of the windpipe and serve to keep that air-pa age permanently distended. Such rings are usually of hyaline cartilage and very elastic, but may o ify more or le completely. They are numerous, closely succeeding one another along the course of the trachea. They are frequent ly incomplete in a part of their circumference, or otherwise irregular, when, like the corresponding bronchial rings, they are known as half - rings . In animals whose necks undergo notable lengthening and shortening in different attitudes of the head, the rings provide for a corresponding extension and contraction of the trachea, as notably in birds, whose tracheal rings are regularly beveled alternately on the right and left sides, so as to slide over one another when the windpipe is contracted in retraction of the neck. (See cut under tracheal .) Tracheal rings are normally much alike in most of the length of the windpipe, but commonly undergo special modifications at each end of that tube (see cricoid , n., and cut under pes sulus); le frequently several rings are enlarged and con solidated in a dilatation called the tympanum . Several ordinary rings are shown in the cuts under larynx and mouth . - Tweed Ring, an a ociation of corrupt politicians belonging to the Tammany Society, which from about 1863 to 1871 controlled nearly all the departments of administration in New York city, and plundered the city of many millions of dollars. The principal leaders were William M. Tweed (commi ioner of public works, chairman of the executive committee of Tammany Hall, and grand sachem of the Tammany Society), Connolly (comptroller of the city), and Sweeny (park commi ioner). The ring was overthrown in 1871, and Tweed died in jail. - Vortex ring. See vortex . - Widow's ring, a ring a umed by one who vows perpetual widowhood, a custom followed in the fourteenth century and later. Compare widow's mantle, under mantle . (See also cramp - ring , mourning - ring , posy ring , thumb - ring . ) ring1 (ring), v . [ ringen , hringian (also in comp. ymb - hringian , surround, encircle) = D. ringen , ring, wear a ring, = OHG. ge hringen , MHG. ringen ; cf. G. ( um- ) ringen , surround, = Icel. hringa = Sw. ring a = Dan. ringe , furnish with a ring; from the noun: see ring1 , n.] I. trans. 1. To be round about in the form of a circle; form a ring about; encircle; encompa ; gird. Lord Talbot, ring'd about with bold adversity, Cries out for noble York and Somerset. Shak ., 1 Hen. VI., iv. 4. 14. We are left as scorpions ringed with fire. Shelley, The Cenci, ii. 2. 2. To take a position around; surround; hence, to hem in; specifically, in Australia, to keep (cattle) together, by riding around them in a circle. My followers ring him round; He sits unarm'd.