"ring the changes" meaning in English

See ring the changes in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-ring the changes.ogg [Australia] Forms: rings the changes [present, singular, third-person], ringing the changes [participle, present], rang the changes [past], rung the changes [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|ring<,,rang,rung> the changes}} ring the changes (third-person singular simple present rings the changes, present participle ringing the changes, simple past rang the changes, past participle rung the changes)
  1. To make patterned sound sequences on bells, starting and ending on the same tone.
    Sense id: en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-9oce7xTx
  2. To run through all possible variations.
    Sense id: en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-en:all_patterns
  3. (UK) To enliven by varying combinations. Tags: UK Synonyms (to vary combinations): mix and match
    Sense id: en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-S-rvsMSK Categories (other): British English Disambiguation of 'to vary combinations': 4 12 56 4 10 14
  4. (slang, UK, 19th century and earlier) To pass counterfeit money. Tags: UK, slang
    Sense id: en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-DgA0yx22 Categories (other): British English
  5. (slang, dated) To trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change. Tags: dated, slang
    Sense id: en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-zK3S7~2d
  6. To take advantage of a change in order to make money. Derived forms: ringer
    Sense id: en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-9nMiwi5I Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 19 14 18 8 11 30

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for ring the changes meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rings the changes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ringing the changes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rang the changes",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rung the changes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ring<,,rang,rung> the changes"
      },
      "expansion": "ring the changes (third-person singular simple present rings the changes, present participle ringing the changes, simple past rang the changes, past participle rung the changes)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To make patterned sound sequences on bells, starting and ending on the same tone."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-9oce7xTx"
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To run through all possible variations."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-en:all_patterns",
      "senseid": [
        "en:all_patterns"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To enliven by varying combinations."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-S-rvsMSK",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To enliven by varying combinations."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 12 56 4 10 14",
          "sense": "to vary combinations",
          "word": "mix and match"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pass counterfeit money."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-DgA0yx22",
      "links": [
        [
          "pass",
          "pass"
        ],
        [
          "counterfeit",
          "counterfeit"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "19th century and earlier",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, UK, 19th century and earlier) To pass counterfeit money."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-zK3S7~2d",
      "links": [
        [
          "trick",
          "trick"
        ],
        [
          "shopkeeper",
          "shopkeeper"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, dated) To trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "19 14 18 8 11 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "9 19 10 8 22 31",
          "word": "ringer"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take advantage of a change in order to make money."
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_the_changes-en-verb-9nMiwi5I"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-ring the changes.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/96/En-au-ring_the_changes.ogg/En-au-ring_the_changes.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/En-au-ring_the_changes.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ring the changes"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "ringer"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rings the changes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ringing the changes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rang the changes",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rung the changes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ring<,,rang,rung> the changes"
      },
      "expansion": "ring the changes (third-person singular simple present rings the changes, present participle ringing the changes, simple past rang the changes, past participle rung the changes)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To make patterned sound sequences on bells, starting and ending on the same tone."
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To run through all possible variations."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:all_patterns"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To enliven by varying combinations."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To enliven by varying combinations."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pass counterfeit money."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pass",
          "pass"
        ],
        [
          "counterfeit",
          "counterfeit"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "19th century and earlier",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, UK, 19th century and earlier) To pass counterfeit money."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "trick",
          "trick"
        ],
        [
          "shopkeeper",
          "shopkeeper"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, dated) To trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To take advantage of a change in order to make money."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-ring the changes.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/96/En-au-ring_the_changes.ogg/En-au-ring_the_changes.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/En-au-ring_the_changes.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "to vary combinations",
      "word": "mix and match"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ring the changes"
}

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.