"ring down the curtain" meaning in English

See ring down the curtain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-ring down the curtain.ogg [Australia] Forms: rings down the curtain [present, singular, third-person], ringing down the curtain [participle, present], rang down the curtain [past], rung down the curtain [participle, past]
Etymology: In reference to ringing a bell to end a performance. See ring up the curtain. Etymology templates: {{m|en|ring up the curtain}} ring up the curtain Head templates: {{en-verb|ring<,,rang,rung> down the curtain}} ring down the curtain (third-person singular simple present rings down the curtain, present participle ringing down the curtain, simple past rang down the curtain, past participle rung down the curtain)
  1. (idiomatic) To end something. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms (end something): stop, finish
    Sense id: en-ring_down_the_curtain-en-verb-bGBZfjAj Disambiguation of 'end something': 96 4
  2. (idiomatic) To mark the end of something. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-ring_down_the_curtain-en-verb-1dMJpzsa Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 7 93

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for ring down the curtain meaning in English (4.5kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "ring up the curtain"
    },
    {
      "word": "start"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ring up the curtain"
      },
      "expansion": "ring up the curtain",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "In reference to ringing a bell to end a performance. See ring up the curtain.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rings down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ringing down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rang down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rung down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ring<,,rang,rung> down the curtain"
      },
      "expansion": "ring down the curtain (third-person singular simple present rings down the curtain, present participle ringing down the curtain, simple past rang down the curtain, past participle rung down the curtain)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Richard Watson Gilder, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine - Volume 12, page 360",
          "text": "Ring down the curtain on To-day And give the Past the right of way, Till fields of battle red with rust, Shine through the ashes and the dust Across the Age, and burn as plain As glowing Mars through window-pane.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964, William Wasserstrom, Civil Liberties and the Arts: Selections from Twice a Year, 1938-48",
          "text": "And although he is impatient with the Beat pose, uniform, and rhetoric, he too disaffiliates himself and prepares to \"ring down the curtain on the American dream.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Edward L. Shaughnessy, Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility",
          "text": "Now Tyrone, in mixed charity and despair, tries to ring down the curtain on the tragic farce of his son's life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Edward R. Kantowicz, Coming Apart, Coming Together, page 3",
          "text": "A visibly frail Roosevelt played his usual role of mediator between the pugnacious Churchill and the scowling tyrant Stalin. All three leaders left Yalta believing they had obtained the assurances they needed for the postwar world. Churchill rebutted any and all suggestions that the British ring down the curtain on their empire.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To end something."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_down_the_curtain-en-verb-bGBZfjAj",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To end something."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "sense": "end something",
          "word": "stop"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "sense": "end something",
          "word": "finish"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "7 93",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Mark Twain, Paul Fatout, Mark Twain Speaking, page 219",
          "text": "But tonight the Union veteran of Maryland clasps hands with the rebel veteran of Missouri, and the gap is closed. In this supreme moment the imperfect welding of the broken Union is perfected at last, and from this hour the seam of the joining shall no more be visible. The long tragedy is ended — ring down the curtain!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 -, Nathanael West, The Dream Life of Balso Snell",
          "text": "Life is too difficult. O. Greenbaum, H. Knape, T. Kornflower, J. Davenport, all would agree that “Life is but the span from womb to tomb; a sigh, a smile; a chill, a fever; a throe of pain, a spasm of volupty: then a gasping for breath, and the comedy is over, the song is ended, ring down the curtain, the clown is dead.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Steve Roper, Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rockclimber",
          "text": "The great natural routes in Yosemite have been done. The Wall of Early Morning Light merely rang down the curtain. —Jim McCarthy, 1971",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To mark the end of something."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_down_the_curtain-en-verb-1dMJpzsa",
      "links": [
        [
          "mark",
          "mark"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To mark the end of something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-ring down the curtain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/81/En-au-ring_down_the_curtain.ogg/En-au-ring_down_the_curtain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/En-au-ring_down_the_curtain.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ring down the curtain"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "ring up the curtain"
    },
    {
      "word": "start"
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ring up the curtain"
      },
      "expansion": "ring up the curtain",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "In reference to ringing a bell to end a performance. See ring up the curtain.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rings down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ringing down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rang down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rung down the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ring<,,rang,rung> down the curtain"
      },
      "expansion": "ring down the curtain (third-person singular simple present rings down the curtain, present participle ringing down the curtain, simple past rang down the curtain, past participle rung down the curtain)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Richard Watson Gilder, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine - Volume 12, page 360",
          "text": "Ring down the curtain on To-day And give the Past the right of way, Till fields of battle red with rust, Shine through the ashes and the dust Across the Age, and burn as plain As glowing Mars through window-pane.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964, William Wasserstrom, Civil Liberties and the Arts: Selections from Twice a Year, 1938-48",
          "text": "And although he is impatient with the Beat pose, uniform, and rhetoric, he too disaffiliates himself and prepares to \"ring down the curtain on the American dream.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Edward L. Shaughnessy, Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility",
          "text": "Now Tyrone, in mixed charity and despair, tries to ring down the curtain on the tragic farce of his son's life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Edward R. Kantowicz, Coming Apart, Coming Together, page 3",
          "text": "A visibly frail Roosevelt played his usual role of mediator between the pugnacious Churchill and the scowling tyrant Stalin. All three leaders left Yalta believing they had obtained the assurances they needed for the postwar world. Churchill rebutted any and all suggestions that the British ring down the curtain on their empire.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To end something."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To end something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Mark Twain, Paul Fatout, Mark Twain Speaking, page 219",
          "text": "But tonight the Union veteran of Maryland clasps hands with the rebel veteran of Missouri, and the gap is closed. In this supreme moment the imperfect welding of the broken Union is perfected at last, and from this hour the seam of the joining shall no more be visible. The long tragedy is ended — ring down the curtain!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 -, Nathanael West, The Dream Life of Balso Snell",
          "text": "Life is too difficult. O. Greenbaum, H. Knape, T. Kornflower, J. Davenport, all would agree that “Life is but the span from womb to tomb; a sigh, a smile; a chill, a fever; a throe of pain, a spasm of volupty: then a gasping for breath, and the comedy is over, the song is ended, ring down the curtain, the clown is dead.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Steve Roper, Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rockclimber",
          "text": "The great natural routes in Yosemite have been done. The Wall of Early Morning Light merely rang down the curtain. —Jim McCarthy, 1971",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To mark the end of something."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mark",
          "mark"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To mark the end of something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-ring down the curtain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/81/En-au-ring_down_the_curtain.ogg/En-au-ring_down_the_curtain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/En-au-ring_down_the_curtain.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "end something",
      "word": "stop"
    },
    {
      "sense": "end something",
      "word": "finish"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ring down the curtain"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.