ringlet
(ˈrɪŋlɪt)
[f. ring n.1 + -let.]
1. A small ring made of metal or other material.
| 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. xi. 250 A Bullockes hide..so set rounde aboute on the bordre, or verge, with ringlettes of iron. 1725 Pope Odyss. vii. 117 The ringlets that command the door. 1726 Ibid. xxi. 76 Who first Ulysses' wondrous bow shall bend, And through twelve ringlets the fleet arrow send. 1795 Burke Regic. Peace iv. Sel. Wks. 313 This deficiency is made up by strengthening the first ringlet of the chain. 1813 T. Busby Lucretius II. vi. 1255 Some things, as if by hooks and ringlets fixed, In junction hold. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 310 I have sometimes seen them made of very fine polished ivory,..with a ringlet at the base. |
2. A circular dance or course: a circle of dancers; a fairy-ring.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 86 To dance our ringlets to the whistling Winde. 1627 Drayton Quest Cynthia 219 When Fayries in their Ringlets there Do daunce their nightly rounds. 1691 Dryden K. Arthur iv. i, The ringlets round her trunk declare her guilty Of many midnight-sabbaths revelled here. 1762 Beattie Pigm. & Cranes 212 They foot it featly, ranged in ringlets gay. 1793 Coleridge Songs of Pixies vi, Or through the mystic ringlets of the vale We flash our faery feet in gamesome prank. 1821 Sporting Mag. IX. 8 The numerous ringlets or circles on the downs, and on some pasture land. |
b. An annular appearance, marking, formation, part, or piece.
| 1755 B. Martin Mag. Arts & Sci. 153 Now a small Ringlet appears; and this is more properly called a Central than a Total Eclipse of the Sun. 1796 Morse Amer. Geogr. I. 220 Of a pale grey, sky-coloured ground, with brown undulatory ringlets. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. xix. §4 The ringlets of which the proboscis of the bee is composed. 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 1005 He stripped the bark off a tree in ringlets. 1845 Browning Meeting at Night i, The startled little waves that leap In fiery ringlets from their sleep. |
3. A curled lock or tress of hair.
| 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 306 Shee..Her unadorned golden tresses wore Dissheveld, but in wanton ringlets wav'd. 1702 Pope Sappho 83 No more my locks in ringlets curl'd diffuse The costly sweetness of Arabian dews. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 81 Teeth for the toothless, ringlets for the bald. 1837 Lytton E. Maltravers i. viii, Maltravers smiled, and stroked those beautiful ringlets. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets xii. 408 His rich hair ripples in ringlets between cheek and shoulder. |
| fig. 1633 Milton Arcades 47 To nurse the Saplings tall, and curl the grove With Ringlets quaint. 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. viii. xii, Break, Amphion, break your slumbers, Nature's ringlets deck the thorn. |
| attrib. and Comb. 1791–2 Wordsw. Descriptive Sketches 132 Lip-dewing song, and ringlet-tossing dance. 1855 M. Arnold New Sirens xxii, Come, bind up those ringlet showers! 1868 Tennyson Lucretius 258 A truth That..numbs the Fury's ringlet-snake. |
4. Ent. The name given to one of the satyrid butterflies,
Hipparchia hyperanthus. Also
attrib. Other species of
Hipparchia are named
marsh ringlet,
mountain ringlet,
Scotch ringlet,
small ringlet, etc.
| 1812 Haworth in Trans. Entom. Soc. I. 332 Hero. Papilio (silver-bordered Ringlet). Mnemon...(the small Ringlet). 1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 396 Hipparchia Hyperanthus, the Ringlet. 1879 Lubbock Sci. Lect. ii. 49 Hipparchia hyperanthus (the ringlet butterfly) also has whitish caterpillars. |