Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ringleader

Ring′lead′er, n. 1. The leader of a circle of dancers; hence, the leader of a number of persons acting together; the leader of a herd of animals.

A primacy of order, such an one as the ringleader hath in a dance. Barrow.

2. Opprobriously, a leader of a body of men engaged in the violation of law or in an illegal enterprise, as rioters, mutineers, or the like.

The ringleaders were apprehended, tried, fined, and imprisoned. Macaulay.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.