circus
(ˈsɜːkəs)
[L. circus circle, circus, a. Gr. κίρκος, κρίκος ring, circle.]
1. a. Roman Antiq. A large building, generally oblong or oval, surrounded with rising tiers of seats, for the exhibition of public spectacles, horse or chariot races, and the like.
The Circus Maximus, the largest and most celebrated at Rome, is often referred to specifically as the Circus.
| 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. ii. ix. 51 a, A place walled about named Circus wher was vsed fyghting and coursyng of horses and running with charettes. 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 184 A pleasant vally..like one of those Circusses which in great Cities somewhere doth giue a pleasant spectacle of running horses. 1618 Bolton Florus iii. xxi. 247 What slaughters were there in the Forum, in the Circus, and open Temples? 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 81 Amphitheatres, Circus's, and other publick enclosed Places. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. cxxxix, The bloody Circus' genial laws. 1877 Bryant Ruins Italica ii, This broken circus..Flaunting with yellow blossoms. |
b. A space or area of similar appearance or use.
| 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. III. 30 Sept., Nothing remains but a naked circus of loose sand. 1791 Cowper Odyss. viii. 304 Ye Phæacians, beyond others skill'd To tread the circus with harmonious steps. |
2. Mod. a. A circular arena surrounded by tiers of seats, for the exhibition of equestrian, acrobatic, and other performances. Also transf. the company or ‘troupe’ of performers and their equipage.
| 1791 (title) The History of the Royal Circus. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) v. xiii, Entertainments at Astley's or the Circus. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 328 The equestrians in the circus. |
b. The arena for a bull-fight.
| 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. lxxi, Then to the crowded circus forth they fare..The light-limb'd Matadore Stands in the centre, eager to invade The lord of lowing herds. |
c. A disturbance or uproar; a lively or noisy display. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abroad xxxiii. 358 It [sc. Constantinople] was—well, it was an eternal circus. 1885 W. L. Alden Adv. Jimmy Brown 88 Mr. Martin..sprang up, and nearly upset the table, and fell over his chair backward, and wasn't there a circus in that dining-room! 1887 Harper's Mag. May 944/1 The night grew rougher... ‘I guess it's going to be a regular circus.’ 1895 Scully Kaffir Stories 147, I guess we must see this circus out. If you have to shoot, aim low. 1895 C. King Fort Frayne v. 69 We'll have a circus with him. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 6 Jan. 4/3 This manœuvre was successfully carried out by about 3.30 p.m., when our force prepared to retire; and then the circus commenced. 1951 M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael v. iii. 255 She was lovely and strange and agitating, but he did not want to turn his life into a three-ring circus. 1955 C. Hastings in J. C. Trewin Plays of Year XII. 243 Good God—is that all this three-ring circus is about? 1968 W. Warwick Surfriding in N.Z. 17/3 Weekend surfing has become one big circus, with everybody vieing for the attention of the crowd on the beach. |
d. spec. A squadron of aeroplanes; a group of aircraft or their pilots engaged in skilful or spectacular flying. slang.
| 1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 181 The German airmen, with their ‘travelling circuses’ of twelve to fifteen fast scouts. 1918 C. G. Grey in M. F. von Richthofen's Red Air Fighter Pref. 19 Von Richthofen's chaser squadron—or Jägdstaffel, as the Germans call these formations—was the first to be known as a ‘circus’. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Nov. 905/3 The fortunes of one of the earliest Staffels, or flying circuses. 1957 P. Kemp Mine were of Trouble ix. 161 We saw ahead of us ‘circuses’ of our fighters diving in rotation to machine-gun the fleeing Republicans. |
e. gen. A company, group, or set of persons acting or performing in concert, e.g. in Lawn Tennis, Motor-Racing, etc. colloq.
| 1958 Oxf. Mag. 13 Mar. 379/2 Military–civil relations... Mr. ―'s initiative in organising what we should call a ‘circus’ on the subject at London University was a most welcome one. 1959 Observer 25 Jan. 25/5 Those of us [sc. racing drivers] constantly travelling around with the Grand Prix circus. 1959 Ibid. 5 Apr. 27/5 The Kramer circus comes to Britain this year immediately after Wimbledon. 1970 Observer 15 Mar. 19/2 The week-long tournament with Omar Sharif and the Bridge Circus. |
3. A natural amphitheatre; a rounded hollow, or plain encircled by heights.
| 1836 Disraeli H. Temple v. iii, The party found themselves in a circus of hills, clothed with Spanish chestnuts. 1862 Tyndall Mountaineer. vi. 44 The circus in which the Schallenberg glacier originated. 1889 Boy's Own Paper 16 Mar. 378/1 A large lunar circus..termed the circus of Copernicus. |
† 4. A circle or ring. Obs.
| 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iv. 117 Sooner shall grass in Hyde-park Circus grow. [A fashionable circular drive, called the ‘Ring’ in Chas. I's time.] 1748 Lond. Mag. 264 On the right of the sun there was a large circus resembling the colours of a rainbow. |
5. (vaguely) Compass; encircling line. rare.
| 1817 Byron Lament Tasso i, I have..made me wings wherewith to overfly The narrow circus of my dungeon wall. |
† 6. Med. A circular bandage. Obs.
| 1811 Hooper Med. Dict. |
7. A circular range of houses. Also, a traffic roundabout. Often in proper names as Oxford Circus, Regent Circus.
| 1714 Pope Rape Lock iv. 117 Sooner shall Grass in Hide-Park Circus grow. 1766 Anstey Bath Guide ii. ix. 57 To breathe a purer Air In the Circus or the Square. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 23 Apr., The same artist who planned the Circus has likewise projected a crescent [at Bath]. Ibid. The Circus is a pretty bauble..and looks like Vespasian's amphitheatre turned outside in. 1794 Looker-on No. 89 The squares and circuses are no longer the only scenes of dignified dissipation. 1898 Tit-Bits 15 Jan. 300/3 Bridges, of light and tasty design, across all the main thoroughfares, and at the various ‘circuses’ and cross roads. |
8. attrib. and in Comb., as circus-bench, circus-horse, circus-master, circus-rider, circus-ring, circus-trick, etc. circus-movements, ‘a term applied to the movement in a circle which occurs in some unilateral diseases and injuries of the grey centres at the base of the brain’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
| 1825 Hone Every-Day Bk. I. 972 A circus-bench, capable of accommodating forty persons. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour liii. 299 A circus master following a horse. 1869 ‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. xxx. 324 In the centre of the great circus ring..was a torn and ragged upheaval a hundred feet high. 1876 Ouida Moths iii. Like what the circus-riders wear. 1877 tr. Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XII. 261 The occurrence of the so-called circus-movements. 1878 Foster Phys. iii. vi. §2. 498 The animal executes ‘circus movements’. 1917 W. Owen Let. 4 Feb. (1967) 431 Cantering round..and doing all kinds of circus tricks. 1967 O. Ruhen in Coast to Coast 1965–6 191, I put my palomino through one of her circus tricks. |
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Add: [7.] b. the Circus, a nickname for the British Secret Service (see quot. 1982).
| 1963 ‘J. le Carré’ Spy who came in from Cold vi. 51 Who's that man in the Labour Exchange—Pitt? Wasn't he in the Circus during the war? 1974 ― Tinker, Tailor iv. 36 In your day the Circus ran itself by regions... Control sat in heaven and held the strings. 1979 H. McLeave Borderline Case i. 3 The Georgian house where his section of the Circus worked. 1982 Verbatim Spring 1/2 Circus is highly ambiguous jargon for ‘London headquarters’; the word refers to the address at Cambridge Circus, but the expression the Circus also carries negative connotations of frivolity and confusion. 1984 B. Reid So much Love xii. 235 He came to me..only to get some information; to use my brain, which had been so invaluable to them when I was in what they called the Circus, in the Secret Service. |