hold the ring

ˈhəʊld ðə ˌɹɪŋ

3 definitions

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#1·11h ago

(sports, theater, obsolete) To maintain order among spectators encircling participants in a prizefight or a performance and keep them from coming too near the participants.

Police held the ring during the protests.

Origin: [[File:The Royal Navy during the Second World War- Operation Torch, North Africa, November 1942 A12678.jpg|thumb|Soldiers watching a boxing match aboard a Royal Navy troopship in November 1942 during World War II, from the collection of the Imperial War Museum, UK]] Probably from keep the ring. In days past when spectators would encircle participants in a prizefight or a performance, people would be employed to maintain order among them and keep them from coming too near the participants. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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#2·11h ago

To be a spectator at a fight; (figuratively) to watch other people argue.

In England a century earlier it had been a struggle between two warring houses, in France it was now a struggle between three: Guise, Montmorency and Bourbon, with the feeble government of [[w:Catherine de' Medici

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#3·11h ago

(chiefly, Britain, idiomatic) To oversee a situation while attempting to remain uninvolved in it.

While this debate was going on in ''[[w:Nature (journal)

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