ringleader
See also: ring leader
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]ringleader (plural ringleaders)
- A leader of a group of people, especially an unofficial group.
- 2017, Allyson Kennedy, Can't Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl:
- Once, on a confident whim, I approached the group of popular girls in an attempt to broaden my circle. Their ringleader took one glance at my new Aeropostale T-shirt and whispered to her clones, “Yeah, Aero's definitely out now.”
- A person who starts and leads a disturbance (such as a riot), a conspiracy, or a criminal gang.
- The police arrested the ringleaders of the smuggling operation.
- 1590, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 2:
- A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent, / Under the countenance and confederacy / Of Lady Eleanor, the protector's wife, / The ringleader and head of all this rout, / Have practis'd dangerously against your state...
- 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 203:
- The ringleaders of the gang were eventually hanged at Tyburn.
Translations
[edit]leader of a group of people, especially an unofficial group
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person who starts and leads a disturbance, a conspiracy, or a criminal gang
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