rifle, to play at dice, to gamble or raffle for a stake. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1; Dryden, Amboyna, v. 1. Hence rifling, Northward Ho, v. 1 (Bellamont); Minsheu. Still in use in west Yorkshire (Dr. Joseph Wright). Du. ‘rijffelen, to riffle, or who shall cast most upon the Dice’ (Hexham).
rig, to search into, ransack; ‘And in the bowels of the earth unsaciably to rig’, Golding, Metam. i. 138; ‘To . . . rig every corner’, Gosson, Schoole of Abuse (ed. Arber, p. 54).
rigell; see [ridgel].
rin, to run. Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. i (ed. Arber, p. 54); ‘They ryde and rinne’, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 196. A north-country form (EDD.). ME. ryn, to run (Wars Alex. 1352); rynnand, running (Barbour’s Bruce, iii. 684).
rine, ‘rind’, the outside peel or bark; ‘Bark and rine’, Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 3. 11; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 111. So in Dorset (Barnes’ Poems), see EDD.
ring: in phr. cracked within the ring; See [crack] (3).
ring. Running at the ring, a sport in which a tilter, riding at full speed, endeavoured to thrust the point of his lance through, and to bear away, a suspended ring. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, i. 1 (Ferdinand). Also riding at the ring, Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole).
ringled, provided with rings, ringed. Marlowe, Hero and Leander, ii. 143.
ringman, the ring finger, fourth finger. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 109). Still in use in Cumberland, see EDD. ME. ryngeman fyngur, ‘anularis’ (Cath. Angl.). In B. Jonson’s Alchemist, i. 1 (p. 243), Subtle says, ‘In chiromancy we give the fore-finger to Jove. The ring (i.e. the ring-finger) to Sol.’ See Halliwell (s.v. Ring-finger).
ringo-root, an eater of eringo-root; a term of contempt. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 112.