Definition of "circle"

circle

/ˈsɜɹkəl/

noun
plural circles
1. (geometry) A two-dimensional geometric figure, a line, consisting of the set of all those points in a plane that are equally distant from a given point (center).
2. A two-dimensional geometric figure, a disk, consisting of the set of all those points of a plane at a distance less than or equal to a fixed distance (radius) from a given point.
3. Any shape, curve or arrangement of objects that approximates to or resembles the geometric figures.
  1. Any thin three-dimensional equivalent of the geometric figures.
  2. A curve that more or less forms part or all of a circle.
4. A specific group of persons; especially one who shares a common interest.
  Quotations
  As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance widened.
  1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith ”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871
  At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
  1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […]
  “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, […], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
  The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
  1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company
5. The orbit of an astronomical body.
6. (cricket) A line comprising two semicircles of 30 yards radius centred on the wickets joined by straight lines parallel to the pitch used to enforce field restrictions in a one-day match.
7. (Wicca) A ritual circle that is cast three times deosil and closes three times widdershins either in the air with a wand or literally with stones or other items used for worship.
8. (South Africa, Philippines, India) A traffic circle or roundabout.
  Quotations
  He arrived at the lakefront and drove around the circle where the amusement park and beach used to be when he was a kid […]
  2011, Charles E. Webb, Downfall and Freedom, page 120
9. (obsolete) Compass; circuit; enclosure.
  Quotations
  in the circle of this forest
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iv]
10. (astronomy) An instrument of observation, whose graduated limb consists of an entire circle. When fixed to a wall in an observatory, it is called a mural circle; when mounted with a telescope on an axis and in Y's, in the plane of the meridian, a meridian or transit circle; when involving the principle of reflection, like the sextant, a reflecting circle; and when that of repeating an angle several times continuously along the graduated limb, a repeating circle.
11. A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.
  Quotations
  Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain.
  1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
12. (logic) A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.
  Quotations
  That heavy Bodies deſcend by gravity, is no better an account then we might expect from a Ruſtick: and again; that Gravity is a quality whereby an heavy body deſcends, is an impertinent Circle, and teacheth nothing.
  1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter XVIII, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […]; reprinted in The Vanity of Dogmatizing […] (Series III: Philosophy; 6), New York, N.Y.: For the Facsimile Text Society by Columbia University Press, 1931, page 171
13. Indirect form of words; circumlocution.
  Quotations
  Has he given the lie, / In circle, or oblique, or semicircle.
  1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, (please specify the GB page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
14. A territorial division or district.
15. (in the plural) A bagginess of the skin below the eyes from lack of sleep.
verb
third-person singular simple present circles, present participle circling, simple past and past participle circled
1. (transitive) To travel around along a curved path.
  Quotations
  Other planets circle other suns.
  1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […]
2. (transitive) To surround.
  Quotations
  Their heads are circled with a short turban.
  1699, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions
  So he lies, circled with evil.
  1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Dungeon
3. (transitive) To place or mark a circle around.
4. (intransitive) To travel in circles.

Definition of "circle"

circle

noun

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verb

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