ringing

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The sound produced by something that rings, such as a bell, phone, or alarm.

   A faint ringing carried across the harbor as the buoys rocked.

   The doorbell's ringing startled the cat off the windowsill.

   Similarchiming, pealing, tinkling

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of ring.

   The bells are ringing across the whole town this morning.

   She left the office with her ears still ringing from the concert.

   Note

   Two verbs meet in this one spelling. Besides the sounding ring of bells and ears, ringing serves a verb meaning to enclose or surround, to girdle a tree by cutting away a band of bark, to fit with a ring, and even to rise in the air in spirals. The same verb gives bird ringing and the car thieves' trade, so the object usually tells you which one is meant.

3. 3
   adjective

   Loud and clear, carrying distinctly through the air.

   A ringing cheer went up from the crowd as the gates opened.

   The herald's ringing tones reached every corner of the courtyard.

   Similarresounding, resonant, loud, clear, booming

   Oppositefaint, muffled

   Note

   In use the loudness often turns figurative. Natalie Angiers, writing in The Guardian in 1999, mocks those who "declare ringing confirmation" for their theories on feeble data, and nothing there makes a sound. Such phrases sit right on the border with the "forceful" meaning: a ringing confirmation is both unmistakable and emphatic, so the reader rarely needs to choose between them.

4. 4
   adjective

   Made forcefully and with conviction; powerful and emphatic.

   The committee issued a ringing defense of the proposed budget.

   He closed his speech with a ringing call for unity.

   Similarresounding, emphatic, forceful, powerful, stirring

   Oppositehalf-hearted, lukewarm

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The resonant quality of a sound: its tendency to vibrate richly and linger in the air.

   The old church bell is prized for the deep ringing in its tone.

   The studio's tile floor gave the recording an unwanted ringing.

   Similarresonance, reverberation, echo

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A method of studying wild birds by attaching a small, individually numbered metal or plastic tag to their legs or wings.

   Decades of ringing have mapped the migratory paths of many songbirds.

   The volunteers learned ringing at the coastal observatory.

   Similarbanding

   Note

   Here the ring is a circlet, not a sound. The noun comes from the verb meaning to attach a ring for identification, and the numbered tag on a bird's leg or wing is that ring. Context does the separating: ringing at a coastal observatory is fieldwork, while ringing in a belfry is noise, and the two never share a sentence comfortably.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The crime of stealing cars and illegally changing their identities so they can be resold as legitimate vehicles.

   Car ringing cost insurers millions of dollars last year.

   The detectives specialized in cases of ringing and vehicle fraud.

   Note

   The noun behind a transitive verb whose object is a car: criminals ring a stolen vehicle by changing its identity so it can be resold. Despite the spelling, it keeps company with the circle verb behind bird ringing rather than with the bell. Car ringing is the usual phrase, which keeps a reader from hearing a telephone in the sentence.

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