Word.ws English Dictionary

give someone a ring

give someone a ring verb: become engaged.

Verb (1)

give someone a ring (third-person singular simple present gives someone a ring, present participle giving someone a ring, simple past gave someone a ring, past participle given someone a ring)

  1. Become engaged.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see give, ring.

Verb (2)

give someone a ring (third-person singular simple present gives someone a ring, present participle giving someone a ring, simple past gave someone a ring, past participle given someone a ring)

  1. (idiomatic) To place a telephone call to someone.

Forms of give someone a ring

third-person singular presentgives someone a ring
present participlegiving someone a ring
pastgave someone a ring
past participlegiven someone a ring
alternative formgive someone a bell
alternative formgive someone a buzz
alternative formgive someone a call
alternative formgive someone a jingle
alternative formgive someone a tinkle

Origin of give someone a ring

From the sound of older telephones receiving a call not yet answered.

Questions about give someone a ring

What does give someone a ring mean?
Give someone a ring means become engaged.
What part of speech is give someone a ring?
Give someone a ring is a verb.
What is the past tense of give someone a ring?
The past tense of give someone a ring is gave someone a ring.

Words near give someone a ring in the dictionary

  1. give someone a hand
  2. give someone a hard time
  3. give someone a jingle
  4. give someone a lift
  5. give someone a piece of one's mind
  6. give someone a ring
  7. give someone a shout
  8. give someone a speaking to
  9. give someone an earful
  10. give someone an inch and he'll take a yard
  11. give someone an inch and someone will take a mile

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give someone a ring (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give someone a ring.ogg.

Cite this entry: “give someone a ring.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give_someone_a_ring. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.