"ring up the curtain" meaning in English

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

Verb

Audio: En-au-ring up the curtain.ogg [Australia] Forms: rings up the curtain [present, singular, third-person], ringing up the curtain [participle, present], rang up the curtain [past], rung up the curtain [participle, past]
Etymology: In reference to ringing a bell to start a theatrical performance. Head templates: {{en-verb|ring<,,rang,rung> up the curtain}} ring up the curtain (third-person singular simple present rings up the curtain, present participle ringing up the curtain, simple past rang up the curtain, past participle rung up the curtain)
  1. (idiomatic) to start something Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: start
    Sense id: en-ring_up_the_curtain-en-verb-thwwzjL2 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for ring up the curtain meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "ring down the curtain"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "In reference to ringing a bell to start a theatrical performance.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rings up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ringing up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rang up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rung up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ring<,,rang,rung> up the curtain"
      },
      "expansion": "ring up the curtain (third-person singular simple present rings up the curtain, present participle ringing up the curtain, simple past rang up the curtain, past participle rung up the curtain)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1879, The Peterson magazine - Volumes 75-76, page 444",
          "text": "I caught her in my arms; she kissed me, pushed me gently away, and added: “Ring up the curtain, uncle. Little Moccasin is ready\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1976, Waldemar Gutwinski, Cohesion in Literary Texts: A study of some grammatical and lexical features of English discourse",
          "text": "She remembered perfectly the first sign he had given of it — it had been like the bell that was to ring up the curtain upon the real drama of their life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Albro Martin, Railroads Triumphant",
          "text": "After Congress had waited as long as it was willing to wait for Durant to ring up the curtain, it was lucky when all seemed lost to get the blessing, the services, and a great deal of the personal capital of one of the most wrongly judged men in the history of American railroad leadership: Oakes Ames.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner, page 49",
          "text": "He was one of those who hold that revolutions are not made with rose-water; and with strange prescience he looked to the Russian peasant's hatred of his oppressors to ring up the curtain on a world-drama that should mean the destruction of civilisation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to start something"
      ],
      "id": "en-ring_up_the_curtain-en-verb-thwwzjL2",
      "links": [
        [
          "start",
          "start"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) to start something"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "start"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-ring up the curtain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/97/En-au-ring_up_the_curtain.ogg/En-au-ring_up_the_curtain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/En-au-ring_up_the_curtain.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ring up the curtain"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "ring down the curtain"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "In reference to ringing a bell to start a theatrical performance.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rings up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ringing up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rang up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rung up the curtain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ring<,,rang,rung> up the curtain"
      },
      "expansion": "ring up the curtain (third-person singular simple present rings up the curtain, present participle ringing up the curtain, simple past rang up the curtain, past participle rung up the curtain)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1879, The Peterson magazine - Volumes 75-76, page 444",
          "text": "I caught her in my arms; she kissed me, pushed me gently away, and added: “Ring up the curtain, uncle. Little Moccasin is ready\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1976, Waldemar Gutwinski, Cohesion in Literary Texts: A study of some grammatical and lexical features of English discourse",
          "text": "She remembered perfectly the first sign he had given of it — it had been like the bell that was to ring up the curtain upon the real drama of their life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Albro Martin, Railroads Triumphant",
          "text": "After Congress had waited as long as it was willing to wait for Durant to ring up the curtain, it was lucky when all seemed lost to get the blessing, the services, and a great deal of the personal capital of one of the most wrongly judged men in the history of American railroad leadership: Oakes Ames.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner, page 49",
          "text": "He was one of those who hold that revolutions are not made with rose-water; and with strange prescience he looked to the Russian peasant's hatred of his oppressors to ring up the curtain on a world-drama that should mean the destruction of civilisation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to start something"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "start",
          "start"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) to start something"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-ring up the curtain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/97/En-au-ring_up_the_curtain.ogg/En-au-ring_up_the_curtain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/En-au-ring_up_the_curtain.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "start"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ring up 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.

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