ring the changes

To continually alter or change something. Primarily heard in UK, Australia. I'm not surprised that Tina showed up with purple hair today—she loves ringing the changes with her hair color.

Keep varying how one performs an action or says something, as in She went on and on, ringing the changes on the joy of computers. This expression alludes to the art of change-ringing, where a series of church bells are rung in as many sequences, or changes, as possible. [Early 1600s]

COMMON If you ring the changes, you make changes to the way something is organized or done in order to make it different or to improve it. I like to ring the changes with dark curtains in the winter, and light Indian ones in the summer. Choose a classic trouser suit that you can wear all year round, and ring the changes each season with blouses, scarves and jewellery. Note: In bell-ringing, to `ring the changes' means to ring a number of church bells, each of which gives a different note, one after the other in every possible combination.

To try every possible variation in doing or saying something. The term refers to the ancient English art of change-ringing, in which a series of tuned church bells are rung in as many different sequences as possible. Depending on the number of bells, a great many changes are possible—for example, 720 with six bells. The term was transferred to other kinds of variation by the early seventeenth century, as in T. Adams’s Devil’s Banquet (1614): “Some ring the changes of opinions.” In the late eighteenth century the term also was used for a swindle in which something inferior was substituted for an article of quality; this usage is obsolete.