ˈring-wall
Also ringwall, ring wall.
[f. ring n.1]
1. a. A wall completely surrounding or encircling a certain area. Also fig. (Cf. ring-fence.)
| 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. ii. 6 An immense circuit of buildings; cut out, girt with a high ring-wall, from the lanes and streets of the quarter. 1858 ― Fredk. Gt. ii. vii. (1872) I. 90 The Nürnbergers once..built a ringwall round his Castle. 1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 3/2 Athens before the Persian war..was surrounded by a ring-wall of narrow circuit, some..traces of which are supposed to remain. 1944 Cape Times 25 Oct., In trade they did not want the ring-wall of the British Empire round them. 1950 H. L. Lorimer Homer & Monuments i. 27 A ring-wall of slabs was erected round the graves on the new level. 1963 L. F. Chitty in Foster & Alcock Culture & Environment vii. 175 When its site was first ‘bull-dozed’ in 1947, the ruins of a broad ring-wall were revealed, constructed of local tilestones. 1970 I. Petite Meander to Alaska ii. xi. 111 He was in the process of repairing the foundation [of a house] with a concrete ring wall. |
b. A roughly circular eminence surrounding a crater or mare on the moon or a similar formation on the earth, freq. of volcanic origin.
| 1950 W. Ley Conquest of Space 86 Copernicus is probably the most beautiful of all lunar craters. Its ringwall is 12,000 feet high at the highest point; its diameter is 56 miles. 1962 E. A. Vincent tr. Rittmann's Volcanoes iii. 122 Ring-walls (ramparts) with outflows of lava are common. 1966 Earth-Sci. Rev. I. 231 The continents [on the Moon] are very mountainous and the mountains and lesser eminences generally form parts of the ‘ringwalls’ of maria and craters. 1968 R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 682/2 The island [sc. Makatea] rises on all sides from very deep water with a fringing reef.., bounded in the inner side by an abrupt or overhanging cliff of ancient coral limestone... To the inside again, there is a second cliff.., and a second rocky terrace. Within this ring-wall is a moat-like depression. |
2. techn. (See quots.)
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1945/1 Ring-wall (Metallurgy), the inner lining of a furnace. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. II. 205/2 In some places..they use a sort of half-muffle, called a ‘ring-wall’, consisting of a lining reaching about half way up the kiln. |