different between ringlet vs forelock

English

Etymology

From ring +? -let. Compare Middle English ryngyl, ryngyll, rengel (“ringlet”).

Noun

ringlet (plural ringlets)

1. A small ring.
2. A lock, tress.

   Her hair was in ringlets.

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23

     She was both beautiful and young to their eyes. Her hair was a rich red in color and fell in flowing ringlets over her shoulders. Her dress was pure white but her eyes were blue, and they looked kindly upon the little girl.

3. (entomology) Any of various butterflies with small rings on the wings, in the tribe Satyrini of the family Nymphalidae, such as Aphantopus hyperantus.

Translations

Verb

ringlet (third-person singular simple present ringlets, present participle ringleting, simple past and past participle ringleted)

1. (transitive) To form into ringlets.
   • 1877, Ella Farman, Good-for-nothing Polly (page 163)

     "It's very becoming!" said Pollie coaxingly, taking his curly head, which she had been brushing and ringleting for the last half hour, all damp, into her arms.

2. (transitive) To surround or encircle like a ringlet.
   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist

     I think now that if it had gripped me with those suckers, I would have gone out into the mist too. But it didn't. It grabbed Norm. And the third tentacle ringleted his other ankle. Now he was being pulled away from me.

Anagrams

• Giltner, Tingler, tingler, tringle

German

Pronunciation

Verb

ringlet

1. second-person plural subjunctive I of ringeln

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English *forelock, *forelok, from Old English forelocc, equivalent to fore- +? lock.

Noun

forelock (plural forelocks)

1. The part of a person's hairstyle which covers the forehead.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV, lines 300-303, [1]

     His fair large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks / Round from his parted forelock manly hung / Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad:

   • 1734, The Koran: Commonly Called the Alkoran of Mohammed, translated by George Sale, Sura 96, Congealed Blood, [2]

     Doth he not know that GOD seeth? / Assuredly. Verily, if he forbear not, we will drag him by the forelock, / the lying, sinful forelock. / And let him call his council to assistance: / we also will call the infernal guards to cast him into hell.

   • 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XXXVIII, [3]

     Warm with the blood of lads I know / Comes east the sighing air. / / It fanned their temples, filled their lungs, / Scattered their forelocks free;

   • 1978, Edmund White, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, New York: St. Martin's Press, Chapter VIII, p. 135,

     This little boy, still flicking his head to one side between sentences though the long blond forelock that once excused the tic had been cut […]

2. The part of a horse's (or similar animal's) mane that lies on its forehead.
   • 1898, Ivan Turgenev, in A Lear of the Steppes and Other Stories, translated by Constance Garnett, New York: Macmillan: 1898, p. 146, [4]

     […] the gates themselves slowly parted, there appeared a large horse's head, with a plaited forelock under a decorated yoke, and slowly there rolled into the road a small cart, like those driven by horse-dealers, and higglers.

Synonyms

• (part of hairstyle): bangs (US), fringe (UK)
• (part of horse's mane): foretop

Derived terms

• forelocked
• forelocking
• take time by the forelock
• tug one's forelock

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English forelok, equivalent to fore- +? lock.

Noun

forelock (plural forelocks)

1. A wedge pushed through a hole at the end of a bolt to hold it in place.

Verb

forelock (third-person singular simple present forelocks, present participle forelocking, simple past and past participle forelocked)

1. To fix in place with a forelock (wedge)