ringer

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: ring=er

CIDE DICTIONARY

ringer, n. 

•  One who, or that which, rings; especially, one who rings chimes on bells.  [1913 Webster]
•  A crowbar.  Simmonds.  [1913 Webster]

ringer, n. 

 A horse that is not entitled to take part in a race, but is fraudulently got into it.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

ringer, n. sl.
1 a esp. US an athlete or horse entered in a competition by fraudulent means, esp. as a substitute. b a person's double, esp. an imposter.
2 Austral. a the fastest shearer in a shed. b a stockman or station hand.
3 a person who rings, esp. a bell-ringer.

Idiom

be a ringer (or dead ringer) for resemble (a person) exactly.

Etymology

RING(2) + -ER(1)

THESAURUS

ringer

agent, alternate, alternative, analogy, backup, blagueur, bluff, bluffer, change, changeling, charlatan, comparison, copy, counterfeit, deputy, double, dummy, equal, equivalent, ersatz, exchange, fake, faker, fill-in, fourflusher, fraud, ghost, ghostwriter, humbug, imitation, impersonator, impostor, locum tenens, makeshift, malingerer, metaphor, metonymy, mountebank, next best thing, personnel, phony, picture, pinch hitter, portrait, poser, poseur, pretender, proxy, quack, quacksalver, quackster, relief, replacement, representative, reserves, saltimbanco, second string, secondary, sham, shammer, sign, simulacrum, spares, spit, spitting image, stand-in, sub, substituent, substitute, substitution, succedaneum, superseder, supplanter, surrogate, symbol, synecdoche, third string, token, understudy, utility player, vicar, vice-president, vice-regent

ROGET THESAURUS

ringer

Deceiver

N deceiver &c (deceive), dissembler, hypocrite, sophist, Pharisee, Jesuit, Mawworm, Pecksniff, Joseph Surface, Tartufe, Janus, serpent, snake in the grass, cockatrice, Judas, wolf in sheep's clothing, jilt, shuffler, stool pigeon, liar &c (lie), story-teller, perjurer, false witness, menteur a triple etage, Scapin, bunko steerer, carpetbagger, capper, faker, fraud, four flusher, horse coper, ringer, spieler, straw bidder, imposter, pretender, soi-disant, humbug, adventurer, Cagliostro, Fernam Mendez Pinto, ass in lion's skin, actor, quack, charlatan, mountebank, saltimbanco, saltimbanque, empiric, quacksalver, medicaster, Rosicrucian, gypsy, man of straw, conjuror, juggler, trickster, prestidigitator, jockey, crimp, decoy, decoy duck, rogue, knave, cheat, swindler, jobber, saint abroad and a devil at home.