English

Diamond ring during a solar eclipse

Noun

diamond ring ‎(plural diamond rings)

1. Used other than as an idiom: see diamond,‎ ring.
   • 1907, Recreation, National Recreation Association, page 545:

     If that mocking bird don’t^[sic] sing // Daddy’s going to buy me a diamond ring. // If that diamond ring don’t^[sic] shine // Daddy’s going to buy me a bottle of wine.

2. By extension, an engagement ring, usually one given by a man to a woman.
   • 1923, Peter Bernard Kyne, Never the Twain Shall Meet, p. 19:

     If it were not a tradition that a woman shall accept from her fiance a diamond ring which the idiot cannot, in all probability, afford to give her — well, women would not accept them.

   • 2006, Mary Slonaker, The Vinton House, p. 37:

     “Delvin, a diamond ring means you are engaged to be married. I barely know you.”

   • 2010, Juliet Blackwell, If Walls Could Talk: A Haunted Home Renovation Mystery:

     He frowned slightly, whether at the loss of a potential sale or the unnaturalness of a single woman standing beside a handsome man and not lusting after a diamond ring I couldn't be sure.

3. (astronomy) An optical phenomenon visible during a moment of a solar eclipse when only a tiny part of the sun is not obscured by the moon, shining like a diamond in the ring of the sun’s corona.

Translations

See also

• Baily's beads