circumvent, v.
(sɜːkəmˈvɛnt)
[f. L. circumvent- ppl. stem of circumvenīre to surround, beset, deceive, f. circum- round + venīre to come.]
1. trans. To surround or encompass by hostile stratagem, esp. so as to cut off or capture. Now chiefly of hunted animals, etc., in which use it is often taken as a humorous application of sense 2.
| 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 13 The gouernour..so by crafte circumuented him that he toke him priesoner. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 636 The Erle perceyving..that he was circumvented and likely to be trapped wyth the Queenes power. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 157 Being on every side circumvented and hardly charged, most of them there fell. 1779 Forrest Voy. New Guinea 147 Whose husband had lately been circumvented by the Dutch, and sent to the Cape of Good Hope. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1849) 133 These simple animals were easily circumvented and destroyed. |
2. To encompass with evils, with malice, or enmity; to try to entrap in conduct or speech.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 478 b, Being circumvented by the malitious practizes of all men almost, he [Luther] was forced to maintayne his cause..with most manifest scriptures. 1595 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 87 Circumvented as I am with so many evils. 1623 Bingham Xenophon 36 Circumvented with distresse. 1853 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. vii. 94 We did not..circumvent Him like the Scribes and lawyers. |
3. To get the better of by craft or fraud; to overreach, outwit, cheat, ‘get round’, ‘take in’. Also, to evade or find a way around (a difficulty, obstacle, etc.).
| a 1564 Becon New Catech. 8th Commandm. (1844) 104 Suche as in biyinge and sellinge begyle and circumuent their neighbour. 1568 Bible (Bishops') 2 Cor. ii. 11 Lest we should be circumuented [Vulg. circumveniamur] of Satan. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 152 Should Man..Fall circumvented thus by fraud, though joynd With his own folly? 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. ii. ii. (1866) 154 If he could overcome or circumvent the scruples of the Landgrave. 1885 Sir W. V. Field in Law Times' Rep. LII. 652/1, I do not charge that the vendor was in any way circumvented. 1946 E. O'Neill Iceman Cometh p. vii, This food provision was generally circumvented by putting a property sandwich in the middle of each table. 1964 C. V. Wedgwood Trial of Charles I (1967) iv. 73 He trusted to his own and his soldiers' vigilance to circumvent any plan of escape that might be attempted either by Newburgh or, more probably, by his wife. 1979 W. Golding Darkness Visible (1980) ii. 30 He set about devising a scheme by which he could circumvent any attempt on the part of the headmaster to get rid of him. 1986 N.Y. Times 19 Feb. b6/3 He..expressed concern that someone had somehow managed to circumvent the safeguards. |
b. absol.
| 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. Ps. lxxxvi. 11 (1841) 120 Let no man defraude or circumuent. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) I. 38 She had no hand at argument, And so she tried to circumvent. |
4. To encompass, enclose (literally).
| 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 466 The breakers that circumvent those Islands. 1850 ‘Bat’ Cricket. Man. 81 Nearly circumvented by houses. |
5. To go round, make the circuit of.
| 1840 Hood Up Rhine 235 To circumvent the town by water. 1863 Fr. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 257, I passed the new house, and again circumvented it. |
Hence circumˈventing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 7 For the circumventing of the Patriarch. 1618 Rowlands Sacred Memorie 39 The circumuenting hollow-hearted friend. 1843 J. Martineau Chr. Life (1867) 337 A sly and circumventing gaze. |