▪ I. rung, n.
(rʌŋ)
Forms: 1 hrung, 5– rung (7 rungg, wrung); 3 roungue, 4, 6 roung, 6 rounge; 4–7 ronge, 7 rongue, rong, roonge.
[OE. hrung, = Fris. ronge, MDu. rong(h)e (Du. rong), MLG. runge (LG. runge, rung), OHG. runga (MHG. and G. runge), Goth. hrugga (rendering Gr. ῥάβδος), not traceable outside of Teutonic.]
1. A stout stick of a rounded form, esp. one used as a rail (in a cart, etc.), cross-bar, or spoke.
The precise sense in the first quot. is not clear.
| a 1000 Riddles xxiii. 10 Ongunnon stiᵹan þa on wæᵹn weras & hyra wicᵹ somod hlodan under hrunge. 13.. W. de Bibbesworth in Wright Vocab. (1857) I. 168 [Checune charette ke meyne blés Deyt aver redeles, glossed] rayes, ronges [au coustés]. 1481–2 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 322 Pro prostracione del rongez in Acleywod. 1483 Cath. Angl. 311/2 A Ronge of a carte, epiridium, limo. 1591 Mem. St. Giles's Durh. (Surtees) 16 Paid..for a burthen of rounges to the Yeate, 7d. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 107 These rammers are made of..such like thinges as have holes; they putte into the holes two rungs to hold by. 1656 Tucker in Misc. Sc. Burgh Rec. Soc. 26 Whence [Ireland] they bring hoopes, ronges, barrell staves, meale, oates, and butter. 1762 Information for Anne Inch agst. J. Bruce 2 He, the said Bruce,..beat her with the Rungs of a broken Sledge. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 192 Fig. 9. represents the two handles fixed together by the two rungs. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §990 The hay⁓racks to be made 2 feet and a half wide; the rungs (spokes) of 1 inch and a half deal. 1864 Morn. Star 7 Dec., The chair had no rung on which to rest them. 1873 R. Broughton Nancy I. 20 Algernon has thrust his head far out between the rungs of his chair-back. |
† b. cogs and rungs: (see cog n.2 1). Also as the name of a dance-tune (quot. 1621). Obs.
| 1477 in 24th Rep. Deputy Kpr. Irel. 107 The miller to provide cogges and ronges for the mill wheels. 1483–4 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 249 Pro adquisicione de le cogges et ronges pro molendino de Milburne, viij d. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §134 To sell..the crabbe-trees to myllers, to make cogges and ronges. 1621 R. Brathwait Nat. Embassie, etc. (1877) 259, I am sure thou there shalt find, Measures store to please thy mind; Roundelayes, Irish-hayes, Cogs and rongs and Peggie Ramsie. |
2. A round or stave of a ladder.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 287/332 Ase he sat on þis laddre lowe on þe neþemeste roungue. c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 439 His owne honde than made he laddres thre, To clymben by the ronges and the stalkes Unto the tubbes. 1439 Tintinhull Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.) 180 Pro j scala xiij rongarum empta pro le belfray, xx d. 1483 Cath. Angl. 311/2 A Ronge of a stee, scalare. 1611 Coryat Crudities 488 A ladder which containe[s] seuen and twenty steps or rungs as we call them in Somersetshire. 1694 Phil. Trans. XVIII. 71 Three Ladders differently Runged, that is, the Rungs or steps placed at several distances. 1781 Hutton Tour to Caves Gloss. (ed. 2) 95 Rungs, the steps in a ladder. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral Tales (1806) I. vi. 38 Henry saw his friend reach the last rung of the ladder. 1860 Wynter Curios. Civiliz. II. 402 Will the nimble figure gain the topmost rung ere nature fails? 1887 Besant World Went xv. 122 A young man got upon a ladder..and sat upon the topmost rung. |
b. fig., or in fig. context.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 44 And [the fiend] leith a laddre þere-to, of lesynges aren þe ronges. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 379 Þus þe ladder þat men shulden come to heven by, eiþer wantiþ roungis, or ellis it is not rerid. 1635 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Banish'd Virg. 21 The religious Founder thereof hath fashioned out the rongues of a ladder to heaven. 1670 Clarendon Tracts (1727) 176 It is a vow of obedience.., as the upper and highest wrung of the ladder, to the pope. 1865 Sat. Rev. 16 Dec. 766 On the lowest rung of the Christmas ladder stand the Infant Books. 1883 S. C. Hall Retrospect I. 1 One of the lowest rungs of Memory's ladder. |
3. Sc. and north. A cudgel; a stout staff or walking-stick.
| 1540 Rec. of Elgin (New Spald. Cl.) I. 49 For the manessing of the saidis Katerine with ane rung. 1588 Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 270 The said Robert Lekky..maliciouslie straik and dang thame with rungis and treis. 1678 Sir G. Mackenzie Crim. Laws Scot. ii. (1699) 235 With a great Batton, or Rung in his hand, and with Knives and other invasive Weapons. 1721 Kelly Scot. Prov. 396 I'll take a Rung, and rizle your Rigging with it. 1795 Burns Dumfries Volunteers ii, Till slap!—come in an unco loon, And wi' a rung decide it. 1838 J. Grant Sketches London 296 The Scotchman threw his ‘rung’, as he called it, and sure enough he hit the stick. 1893 Crockett Stickit Minister 195 The sound of the watchman's oak ‘rung’ had been too much for them. |
b. fig. or in fig. context.
| 1711 Ramsay On Maggy Johnstoun vii, Death wi' his rung rax'd her a yowff, And sae she died. 1805–6 J. Nicol Poems I. 120 (Jam.), An' as for Poortith,..Aft hae I..felt her rung. 1858 M. Porteous Souter Johnny 32 Yet there ye sang, though neth the dred O' poortith's rung. |
4. Shipbuilding. A floor-timber. Now rare.
| a 1625 Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), Rungs are the Timbers which doe give the flower of ye Shipp, and theise are bolted to the Keele. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 2 They lay the Rungs, called floore timbers, or ground timbers, thwart the keele. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xv. (Roxb.) 37/1 The Runges or Rung heads, the same to hooks and futtocks. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2003/1 The spaces between the rungs are spirkets. |
5. attrib., as rung-cart, † rung-staff, † rung-stower, rung-wheel.
| 13.. W. de Bibbesworth in Wright Vocab. (1857) I. 168 [En les reideles vount les rolous, glossed] ronge-stafs. 1389–90 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 596 Pro lucracione xx. gang de rungstoures pro carectis, xviij d. 1612 Sturtevant Metallica (1854) 106 The Water Plegnick which mooueth either invisibly and secretly under the water and by the water with one rong wheel. 1825 Jamieson Suppl. s.v. Rung-wheel, In a corn-mill..the one which has cogs drives the other, and is called the cog-wheel; the other, from its having spokes or rungs, is called the rung-wheel. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 122, I was..so greatly recruited..as to be fit..to be removed, in the old man's rung-cart. 1882 Jamieson's Sc. Dict., Rung-Cairt, a cart with open sides, i.e., made with rungs or spars of wood. |
Hence runged ppl. a.; ˈrunging vbl. n. Also ˈrungless a.
| 1523 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. V. 220 Item, for sawing of ane tre to be an leddir, and for rungging and making of the samyn, ij s. 1554 Extr. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871) 350 Item for runging of the kirk ledder, xxx{supd}. 1694 Phil. Trans. XVIII. 71 Three Ladders differently Runged. 1875 Contemp. Rev. XXV. 563 Four rungless chairs are solemnly watching the operation. 1886 Macleod Clyde District Dumbarton. 160 The ladder by which he climbed to fame and fortune was runged by indomitable perseverance. |
▪ II. rung, ppl. a.1
[f. ring v.1]
a. Having a ring inserted in the nose. b. Ring-barked.
| a. c 1630 B. Jonson Underwoods lxxvi, Like those, That hang their richest jewels in their nose: Like a rung bear or swine. 1778 [W. H. Marshall] Minutes Agric. 7 Feb. 1775, The rung ox is as passive as a spaniel. |
| b. 1901 Sword & Trowel Jan. 24 The white skeletons of the rung trees. |
▪ III. rung, ppl. a.2
[f. ring v.2]
Made to ring or resound.
| 1860 Dobell in Macm. Mag. Aug. 327 Tho'..the encountered shock Of your clashing battles jar The rung heav'ns. |
▪ IV. rung
obs. pa. pple. reign v., ring v.1