circular, a. and n.
(ˈsɜːkjʊlə(r))
In 5–6 -er, 5 -ere, 6 Sc. -eir, 6–7 -are.
[ME. circuler, a. AF. circuler = OF. circulier, a partially Latinized alteration of OF. cerclier:—L. circulār-is, f. circul-us circle. The F. cerclier was successively refashioned as cerculier, circulier, circulaire; the Eng. became with the Renascence circular.]
A. adj.
1. Of the form of a circle; round in superficies.
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xi, A smale aulter..that was halfe circuler. 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terapeutyke 2 F iv, The vlcere that are cyrculer and rounde. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 22 The frame thereof seemd partly circulare, And part triangulare. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 1. ¶5 A Round of Politicians at Will's..those little Circular Audiences. 1833 Sir J. Herschel Astron. vi. 224 A body which always casts a circular shadow must itself be spherical. 1861 Parker Goth. Archit. i. i. (1874) 3 Circular churches were occasionally used from an early period. |
† 2. transf. Perfect, full, complete.
Obs.| 1616 Chapman Homer's Hymn to Hermes 82 Nor must you..Boile in your gall a grudge too circulare. 1618 ― Hesiod Ded. 142 Nor were those Greeks so circular in their elegant utterance, but their inward judgments and learnings were as round and solid. 1631 Massinger Emperor East iii. ii, In this, sister, Your wisdom is not circular. 1659 Dryden On Cromwell v, How shall I then begin or where conclude To draw a fame so truly circular? For in a round what order can be shewed, Where all the parts so equal-perfect are? |
3. a. Moving in or passing over a circle; orbitual; describing a circle.
| c 1450 Epiph. in Tundale's Vis. (1843) 103 As Phebus went by mevyng circulere. 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 25 Into a circuler dance. 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. iv. 76 It is probable that the terrestriall Globe hath a circular motion. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 663 Like the circular motion of a wheel. |
b. circular tour: one which is completed at (or near) the place of starting;
circular ticket, one serving for all the stages of such a tour.
| 1860 Advt. Circular tour of Loch Lomond and the Trosachs, returning from Stirling or Edinburgh. 1873 Cook's Excursionist No. 5 June, Through-tickets, semi-circular tickets, and circular tourist tickets. |
4. fig. a. Moving or occurring in a round or cycle of repetition.
| a 1643 G. Sandys Bk. Job 12 (T.) The life of man is a perpetual war, In misery and sorrow circular. 1647 Crashaw Poems, Death Herrys 95 When weak time shall be poured out Into eternity, and circular joys Dance in an endless round. a 1684 Earl Roscom. (J.) From whence th' innumerable race of things By circular successive order springs. |
b. Forming a link in a circular chain.
| 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Circles Wks. (Bohn) I. 125 The circular or compensatory character of every human action. |
c. circular insanity [
tr. Fr. folie circulaire (J. Falret
père 1854, in
Bull. de l'Acad. de Méd. XIX. 383)]: a mental disease characterized by alternating phases of elation and depression; manic-depressive psychosis;
= cyclothymia (
s.v. cyclo-).
| 1862 J. H. Worthington tr. J. Falret fils in Amer. Jrnl. Insanity XVIII. 382 The mental disorder described by my father under the name of circular insanity..consists in a regular alternation of a condition of melancholic depression with a state of maniacal excitement. 1895 W. James Will to Believe (1897) 34 In what is called ‘circular insanity’, phases of melancholy succeed phases of mania. 1962 Henderson & Gillespie Text-bk. Psychiatry (ed. 9) x. 208 Kraepelin..in 1896..formulated his conception of the manic-depressive psychosis. In this group he included..periodic and circular insanity. |
5. Of the nature of arguing or reasoning in a circle.
| 1646 Gillespie Malè Audis 50 Mr. Coleman..chargeth me with a circular argumentation. 1681 Hobbes Rhet. i. ix. 24 To praise the Work from the Vertue of the Worker, is a circular proof. 1700 T. Baker Reflect. Learn. (J.), One of Carte's first principles of reasoning..seems to be too circular to safely build upon; for he is for proving the being of God from the truth of our faculties, and the truth of our faculties from the being of a God. 1947 Partisan Rev. XIV. 372 Definition of a civilization in terms of the intelligible field of study is deceptive. The process is circular and tautological. 1969 English Studies L. 259 To say that the character must be uninvolved in the aspect of the plot on which he comments and emotionally free from entanglements with the characters he discusses..is really a circular argument: if he were not the spectator would have ironic reservations, and might not find the conclusions acceptable. |
6. Circuitous, roundabout, indirect.
| 1617 Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel ii. ii, If you knew well my heart, you would not be So circular. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. i, You circular old dodger. |
7. = cyclic.
Obs. rare.
| a 1734 Dennis (J.), Had Virgil been a circular poet, and closely adhered to history, how could the Romans have had Dido? |
8. Affecting or relating to a circle or number of persons;
esp. in
circular letter, ‘a letter directed to several persons, who have the same interest in some common affair’ (J.);
circular note (
a)
= prec.; (
b) a letter of credit addressed by a banker (
e.g. in London) to several bankers in other countries, in favour of a certain person named therein, usually a person on a tour.
| 1659 Bp. Walton Consid. Considered 192 Their chief Priest..sends circular letters to the rest about their solemn feasts. 1687 R. L'Estrange Answ. Dis. 29 And never any Letter perhaps, was more Universally Circular, then This has been. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xii. 246 Circular epistles were sent..to all the principal cities. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xiv. 75 The country gentlemen..were tried with circular questions, whether they would comply with the king in their elections. a 1847 Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor I. v. 149 An old lady..came from a distant part of the county to pay a circular visit among her relations. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 225 Circular letters, imploring them to sign, were sent to every corner of the kingdom. 1850 Thackeray Kickleburys Wks. (1869) 188 My lady K. walked over to the money changers, where she changed a couple of circular notes. 1879 Farrar St. Paul II. 438 The circular Epistle which is generally known as the Epistle to the Ephesians. |
9. Math. Of or pertaining to the circle, or its mathematical properties; as in
circular arc,
circular cubic,
circular error,
circular function,
circular measure;
circular line (
a) see
quot. 1796; (
b) the imaginary straight line joining the centre of any circle to either of the two circular points at infinity, and forming a tangent to the circle;
circular parts (of Napier), ‘five parts of a right-angled or a quadrantal spherical triangle; they are the two legs, the complement of the hypothenuse, and the complements of the two oblique angles’ (Hutton
Math. Dict.);
circular points, the two imaginary points at infinity through which all circles pass, also called
focoids.
| 1599 Massinger, etc. Old Law v. i, All Studies else are but as circular lines And death the centre where they must all meet. 1796 Hutton Math. Dict. I. 289/1 Circular lines, a name given by some authors to such straight lines as are divided by means of the divisions made in the arch of a circle. Such as the Sines, Tangents, Secants, etc. 1859 Todhunter Sph. Trigonom. v. §66 (1871) 35 Two rules, which are called, from their inventor, Napier's Rules of Circular Parts. 1874 ― Trigonom. ii. §20. 10 The fraction arc divided by radius is called the circular measure of an angle. 1878 Wolstenholme Math. Problems (ed. 2) 248 The two impossible circular points at infinity. 1884 Williamson Diff. Calc. xii. §186 (ed. 5) This curve is called a circular cubic. Ibid. 431 Eliminate the circular and exponential function from the equation. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 60 [The] Circular Error..in a clock [is] the difference of time caused by the pendulum following a circular instead of a cycloidal path. |
10. Technical.
circular bolt: ‘a machine employed by the Nottingham lace manufacturers in making net’ (Simmonds
Trade Dict.).
circular canon (
Mus.): a canon which leads back to the beginning and repeats itself instead of coming to a regular close.
circular-circular work (
Arch.): ‘a term applied to any work which is formed by the intersection of two cylinders whose axes are not in the same direction’ (Gwilt).
circular crystals: ‘a term applied to the flattened groups of radiating needles which form when solutions of oxalurate of ammonia, salicine, and other substances are evaporated in a thin layer on a microscopic slide’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.).
circular file: ‘a circular saw or serrated disc, adapted to run on a spindle or mandrel, and used in cutting teeth of cog-wheels’ (Knight
Dict. Mech.).
circular instruments: instruments for measuring angles, graduated round the whole circumference of a circle,
i.e. 360°.
circular loom: ‘a loom in which the shuttle moves in a circular race and continuously in one direction through warps arranged in a circle’ (Knight
Dict. Mech.).
circular number: a number whose powers terminate in the same digit as the number itself.
circular polarization: see
polarization.
circular sailing (
Naut.): navigation by the arc of a great circle (see
circle n. 2 b.).
circular saw: a saw in the form of a circular disc, which is made to revolve rapidly on its axis. Hence
circular saw-mill, etc.
circular shears: ‘shears for sheet-metal consisting of two circular blades on parallel pins’ (Knight
Dict. Mech.).
circular work (
Arch.): ‘a term applied to any work with cylindric faces’ (Gwilt).
| 1869 Ouseley Counterp. xv. 105 If it [the canon] is made continually to recur to the beginning, so as never to come to a regular close, it is called Infinite, or *Circular. |
| 1796 Hutton Math. Dict., *Circular Numbers..are such as have their powers ending in the roots themselves. As the number 5, whose square is 25, and its cube 125, etc. |
| 1817 Niles' Reg. XII. 336/2 At the steam saw mill there is a *circular saw,..chiefly calculated for cutting veneers. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 444 Circular saws..are now used in the dock-yard at Portsmouth. 1852 C. W. Hoskyns Talpa 178 As easily as a circular-saw cuts a plank. 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 98 The construction of a circular saw-mill, invented by Smart. |
11. Comb., as
circular-cutting,
circular-edged,
circular-shaped,
circular-storied,
circular-visaged,
adjs.;
circular-wise adv.| 1852 C. W. Hoskyns Talpa 182 The *circular-cutting implement I have described. |
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 151 Gouges are..*circular-edged tools. |
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. v, A couple of large-headed, *circular-visaged males. |
| 1598 Yong Diana 302 The thunderclap as it comes not right down but *circularwise. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Pheasant Pouts, Place the Nets..circularwise. |
B. n. † 1. A circular figure or space.
rare.
| 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 595 In ane conclaue all maid of Christall cleir..Bot ȝit he saw within that circuleir. 1815 J. Gilchrist Labyrinth Demolished 44 O, C, G, with their diversities, are circles or circulars. |
2. Short for
circular letter or
note: now
esp. a business notice or advertisement, printed or otherwise reproduced in large numbers for distribution.
| 1818 Todd, Circular Letter..Modern affectation has changed this expression into the substantive; and we now hear of nothing but circulars from publick offices, and circulars from superintendants of a feast or club. 1822 Byron Let. to Kinnaird 6 Feb., The circulars are arrived, and circulating. 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs iv. (L.), Down with the Court Circular—that engine and propagator of Snobbishness. I promise to subscribe for a year to any daily paper that shall come out without the Court Circular. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 155 He summoned the peers by circular to London. 1880 Brit. Post. Guide 6 Circulars,—i.e., letters which, from internal evidence, appear to be intended for transmission in identical terms to several persons..may also be sent by book post. 1888 Lindley Partnership (ed. 5) 222 A change in the name of a firm..coupled with announcements of the change by circulars sent to the old customers. |