to call several people on the phone in order to find out information or organize something: The first thing they did was to ring around all their competitors' stores undercover to find out their prices. I always ring around to get the cheapest quote.

What does a ring around mean?

or ring around. phrasal verb. If you ring round or ring around, you phone several people, usually when you are trying to organize something or to find some information.

Is Ring Around the Rosie about the Black Death?

FitzGerald states emphatically that this rhyme arose from the Great Plague, an outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague that affected London in the year 1665: Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses is all about the Great Plague; the apparent whimsy being a foil for one of London's most atavistic dreads (thanks to the Black Death).