ringer

noun

1. a person or thing that encircles, rings, etc.
2. a quoit or horseshoe so thrown as to encircle the peg.
3. the throw itself.
4. Also ring·ers. Also called ring taw. Marbles. a game in which players place marbles in a cross marked in the center of a circle, the object being to knock as many marbles as possible outside the circle by using another marble shooter.
5. Australian. a highly skilled sheep shearer.

noun

1. a person or thing that rings or makes a ringing noise: a ringer of bells; a bell that is a loud ringer.
2. dead ringer.
3. Slang.
   1. a racehorse, athlete, or the like entered in a competition under false representation as to identity or ability.
   2. a student paid by another to take an exam.
   3. any person or thing that is fraudulent; fake or impostor.
   4. a substitute or addition, as a professional musician hired to strengthen a school orchestra: We hired three ringers for the commencement concert.

noun

1. a person or thing that rings a bell
2. Also called: dead ringer slang a person or thing that is almost identical to another
3. slang a stolen vehicle the identity of which has been changed by the use of the licence plate, serial number, etc, of another, usually disused, vehicle
4. US a contestant, esp a horse, entered in a competition under false representations of identity, record, or ability
5. Australian and NZ the fastest shearer in a shed
6. Australian informal the fastest or best at anything
7. a quoit thrown so as to encircle a peg
8. such a throw

n.

early 15c., “one who rings” (a bell), agent noun from ring (v.1). In quoits (and by extension, horseshoes) from 1863, from ring (v.2). Especially in be a dead ringer for “resemble closely,” 1891, from ringer, a fast horse entered fraudulently in a race in place of a slow one (the verb to ring in this sense is attested from 1812), possibly from British ring in “substitute, exchange,” via ring the changes, “substitute counterfeit money for good,” a pun on ring the changes in the sense of play the regular series of variations in a peal of bells (1610s). Meaning “expert” is first recorded 1918, Australian slang, from earlier meaning “man who shears the most sheep per day” (1871).