Dictionary

brass ring en · NOUN

Etymology

Some fairground carousels offer a prize to a rider who manages to grab a brass ring.

Meanings

1. (US) A prize or goal, often a chance to advance in one's career.
   • The key on immigration — and I’m anti- any immigration. I want a moratorium on all immigration right now because I want American citizens to get a shot at the brass ring. 2025 January 31, Ross Douthat, quoting Steve Bannon, “Steve Bannon on ‘Broligarchs’ vs. Populism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • I'm holdin' on / I can't fall back / Now that big brass ring / Is a shade of black 1967, Bob Gaudio, Peggy Farina, “Beggin'”, performed by The Four Seasons:
   • The one thing considered the brass ring in selling insurance was making a sale on a cold canvass. Cold canvassing was the most dreaded exercise for most insurance salesmen. 2019, Kelly D. Harrison, Air Force Cop: An Autobiography, page 100:
   • Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring [title] The latest entry in the political Irish sweepstakes is Teddy Kennedy, the President's 30-year-old brother. 1962 March 11, James Reston, “Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring”, in New York Times, page 8E:
   • He's going for the brass ring.
   • As a perversion of freedom it was, like any perversion, erotic; as alienation it carried the frisson of having just missed the brass ring, a sensation that always brought one back for more. 1989, Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

Forms