Word.ws English Dictionary

ring-giver

ring-giver noun: a ruler or chieftain who distributed rings or other valuable gifts to loyal warriors, thanes, or retainers as a means of rewarding service and reinforcing bonds of allegiance and mutual obligation.

Noun

ring-giver (plural ring-givers)

  1. (Old-English, historical) A ruler or chieftain who distributed rings or other valuable gifts to loyal warriors, thanes, or retainers as a means of rewarding service and reinforcing bonds of allegiance and mutual obligation.
    • This kind of money was probably used by the Anglo-Saxons long after their settlement in England; and the name of "ring-giver," as an epithet of princes, was preserved perhaps to the time of the Norman conquest.1837 May, The Gentleman's Magazine, London, page 500
    • Then they confirm'd
      on the two sides
      a fast peaceful compact;
      [...] that there not any man.
      by words or works,
      should break the compact,
      nor through guileful craft
      should they ever lament,
      though they their ring-giver’s
      slayer follow'd,
      now lordless,
      as it was thus needful to them.1855, Benjamin Thorpe, “Beowulf”, in The Anglo-Saxon poems of Beowulf, the Scôp or Gleeman's tale, and The fight at Finnesburg; with a literal translation, notes, glossary, etc., Oxford: James...

Examples of ring-giver in a sentence

  • The opening prologue and the closing epilogue praise Gloucester lavishly by name, and he appears elsewhere in its long nine books as both lawgiver and ring-giver.1914 May, Anglia: Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, volume 38, Halle an der Saale, page 121:
  • The kings needed their support, and like the old Germanic ‘ring-givers’ were forced to secure loyalty by generous giving: in their case by lands and immunities.1956, Margaret Deanesly, chapter 5, in A History Of Early Medieval Europe 476-911, New York: Barnes and Noble, page 300:
  • Another instance is the Anglo-Saxon scop, who sat close to the ring-givers and was much appreciated for an ability to transform action into narrative.2000, John Holmes McDowell, chapter 5, in Poetry and Violence: The Ballad Tradition of Mexico's Costa Chica, Urbana: University of Illinois...

Forms of ring-giver

pluralring-givers

Origin of ring-giver

Literary calque of Old English bēagġiefa, from bēag (“ring”) + ġiefa (“giver”).

Questions about ring-giver

What does ring-giver mean?
Ring-giver means a ruler or chieftain who distributed rings or other valuable gifts to loyal warriors, thanes, or retainers as a means of rewarding service and reinforcing bonds of allegiance and mutual obligation.
How do you use ring-giver in a sentence?
The opening prologue and the closing epilogue praise Gloucester lavishly by name, and he appears elsewhere in its long nine books as both lawgiver and ring-giver.
What part of speech is ring-giver?
Ring-giver is a noun.
What is the plural of ring-giver?
The plural of ring-giver is ring-givers.

Words near ring-giver in the dictionary

  1. ring-finger nail
  2. ring-finger nails
  3. ring-fingernail
  4. ring-fingernails
  5. ring-fingers
  6. ring-giver
  7. ring-givers
  8. ring-giving
  9. ring-hall
  10. ring-halls
  11. ring-hoard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ring-giver (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.

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