Other forms: ringleaders
A ringleader is the one who leads others into trouble. Find the ringleader, the ringleaders were expelled, a ringleader of the plot.
It is always disapproving and always about a group doing something wrong. The ring in it is a circle of people, and the older practice of signing a petition in a circle so nobody could be identified as first is where the image comes from.
1nounringleaderThe one who leads others into trouble.
“The teacher punished the ringleader of the food fight more harshly than the others.”
ringleader is a leader.
Ring plus leader, from the ring of people in a conspiracy, where no name stood first.
From ring + leader.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA