Definition

1. Noun:
   • A person who rings bells: A person, especially one whose job is to ring church bells to summon people to a service.
   • A contestant entered fraudulently: A person or animal entered into a competition, race, or game under false pretenses, often to gain an unfair advantage.
   • A close duplicate: A person or thing that looks almost exactly like another.
   • A successful throw in horseshoes: In the game of horseshoes or quoits, a throw that successfully encircles the stake or peg.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The church ringer tolled the bell for the evening service.
  • The horse was a ringer; it had been entered under a different name to cheat in the race.
  • With that beard, he's a dead ringer for his older brother.
  • He scored a ringer on his final toss to win the game.

Advanced Usage

• "Dead ringer": An idiom meaning an exact look-alike or duplicate of a person.
  • That actor is a dead ringer for the famous politician.
• "To be a ringer for someone/something": To closely resemble someone or something else.
  • This new model is a ringer for last year's top-selling car.

Variants and Related Words

• Ring (verb): To cause a bell to sound.
  • Please ring the bell when you arrive.
• Bell-ringer (noun): Another term for a person who rings church bells.
  • The village bell-ringer has held the position for 40 years.

Synonyms

• Impostor: A person who pretends to be someone else to deceive others (for the fraudulent contestant meaning).
• Doppelgänger: A person who looks very similar to another person (for the duplicate meaning).
• Twin: Something that is very similar to another thing.

Related Phrasal Verbs/Phrases

(This word does not commonly form phrasal verbs. Its meanings are primarily contained within the noun form and the idiom "dead ringer.")

Related Idioms

• Dead ringer: An exact duplicate or look-alike.
  • I thought I saw your uncle, but it was just a dead ringer.

Noun

1. (horseshoes) the successful throw of a horseshoe or quoit so as to encircle a stake or peg
2. a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses
3. a person who is almost identical to another
4. a person who rings church bells (as for summoning the congregation)