▪ I. circuit, n.
(ˈsɜːkɪt)
Forms: 4–6 cir-, cyrcuyt(e, 4–7 circuite, (5 -cute, sircuyte, 6 cyrcute, -cuite, -quet, 7 cercuit, syrkett,) 4– circuit.
[a. F. circuit, ad. L. circuitus going round, f. circu(m)īre, f. circum round + īre to go.]
1. a. The line, real or imaginary, described in going round any area; the distance round; the compass, circumference, containing line or limits.
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xliii. 12 See the bowe..He cumpaside heuene in the circuyt [1388 cumpas] of his glorie. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1029 The circuit a myle was aboute Walled of stoon and dyched al with oute. c 1400 Mandeville xviii. 187 Java..is nyghe 2000 Myle in circuyt. 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. iv. 14 The circuite or compasse of a triangle is a line composed of all the sides of a triangle. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, i. ii. 30 To weare a Crowne, Within whose Circuit is Elizium. 1652 Needham Domin. Sea Advt. 2 The circuit of this Sea..must contein above 1200 miles. 1704 Addison Italy (1766) 124 Sheltered with a noble circuit of woods and mountains. 1847 Grote Greece IV. ii. lii, A rude Circuit of stones, of unknown origin. |
† b. concr. = circlet, diadem.
Obs.| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 352 The Golden Circuit on my Head, Like to the glorious Sunnes transparant Beames. |
† c. fig. ‘Round’, ‘circle’.
Obs.| 1673 Lady's Call. i. §4. 29 If a poor country gentlewoman fall within their circuit, what a stock of mirth does she afford them. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 206 ¶8 A feast within the circuit of his acquaintance. |
d. A road built or used mainly for motor-racing.
| 1935 Eyston & Lyndon Motor Racing i. 4 The idea of ‘closed’ circuits was conceived—that is, courses from which normal traffic is diverted. 1935 Encycl. Sports 421/2 With few exceptions the closed circuit type of race has been the only type to survive... The Ardennes circuit race of 1904 was won by Heath on a Panhard. Ibid. 423/2 In 1929–30–31 important races were run over a road circuit in Phoenix Park, Dublin. 1955 Times 14 May 8/5 After stewards of the meeting had toured the circuit practising was allowed to proceed. |
2. a. The space enclosed by a given circumference or boundary; area, extent, tract.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 58/4 On the morn ther laye lyke dewe All aboute in their circuyte. 1494 Fabyan v. lxxxiii. 60 A large and great circuyt of grounde, vpon the whiche he shortly after buylded and sette a large and stronge Castell. 1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 27 The scites and circuites of all such religious houses. 1590 Earl of Essex in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 214 III. 82 A great circuit of ground in a very good soyle. 1711 Pope Temp. Fame 309 The sound That fills the circuit of the world around. 1765 Act 5 Geo. III, c. 26 Preamb., All those houses, scites, circuits, and precincts. 1856 Bryant Poems, June vi, The pomp that fills The circuit of the summer hills. |
b. fig. Sphere of action, etc.
| 1597 J. Payne Royal Exch. 21 Then may that circuit be counted happie conteyninge so vertuouse an examplar. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. vi. 133 If you give me leave to meddle so far in your circuit. |
3. a. The action of going or moving round or about; a circular journey, a round.
b. A round-about journey or course; a detour.
| 1413 Lydg. Pilgr. Sowle v. i. 70 The spyeres entercounted to geders in their circute..about the erth. 1530 Palsgr. 177 Cyrcvite, a cyrcute, a goyng or compassynge about a thyng. 1611 Bible Ps. xix. 6 His going forth is from the end of the heauen, and his circuite vnto the ends of it. 1687 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 405 Bishop Leybourn is going a circuit to confirm the new converts. 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 127 The bell-man of each parish, as he goes his circuit. 1785 Reid Int. Powers 263 Either in a straight course, or by some circuit. 1795 Gibbon Autobiog. 78, I devoted many hours..to the circuit of Paris. 1812 Woodhouse Astron. viii. 49 Its [the clock's] index or hand ought to perform an exact circuit in the course of a day. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxii. 274 They..could only advance by long circuits. 1876 Green Short Hist. vii. §6 (1882) 407 After completing the circuit of the globe. |
c. fig.;
esp. of time: Revolution, round.
† by circuit: at regularly recurring times (
obs.).
| 1601 Cornwallyes Disc. Seneca (1631) 72 When the daies cercuit is finished. 1651 R. Wittie tr. Primroses's Pop. Err. iii. 149 It is good to give nothing to them that have fits by circuit. 1661 Ussher Power Princes ii. (1683) 235 Many circuits of years I pray you may live. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 119 Fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. xx. The circuit of changes is completed in the course of a year. |
d. Phrases (sometimes influenced by 4), as in
† to go, ride, walk circuit = one's round.
to † fetch, make, take a circuit: to make a detour, take a circuitous or round-about course.
to make or go the circuit of: to go round, go the round of.
† to run circuit with (
fig.):
app. to follow the same lines as, to be concomitant with.
| 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. 163 To fetch the cyrcuyte about Christendome. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. 72 Fetching about a circuite or compasse. 1609 Bible (Douay) 1 Kings xviii. 6 They divided the countries..that they might goe circuite about them. 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 356 The rest of this will run circuit with the union of one flesh, which was answer'd before. a 1655 Vines Lords' Supp. (1677) 4 The destroying angel, that rode circuit that night. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 295 Verdugo..got past the Rhine, by taking a long Circuit. 1751 Chatham Lett. Nephew ii. 5 Your letter..after making a considerable circuit to find me. 1826 B. Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. xii. 59 Now the Marquess..‘went the circuit’, that is to say, made the grand tour of the suite of apartments. 1838 Murray's Hand-Bk. N. Germ. 448 The pedestrian..should make a circuit to the left. a 1876 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. II. i. i. 5 Making a circuit of the neighbouring towns. |
e. A course or round of various athletic exercises.
| 1957 Duncan & Bone Oxf. Pkt. Bk. Athletic Training (ed. 2) iii. 25 A ‘circuit’ is composed of a series of simple exercises..for development of strength, stamina..agility, and speed. |
4. spec. a. The journey of judges (or other persons) through certain appointed areas, for the purpose of holding courts or performing other stated duties at various places in succession; the visitation of the judges for holding assizes.
| 1494 Fabyan vii. 344 Iudgys ordeyned to kepe a cyrcuyte, as nowe they kepe the sysys in the tyme of vacacyon. 1503–4 Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 7 §1 The justices of assises in ther cyrcuyte or progresse in that shyre. 1592 Greene Art Conny Catch. iii. 5 What hee spake of either came to him by examinations, or by riding in the circuits. 1611 Bible 1 Sam. vii. 16 He went from yeere to yeere in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and iudged Israel. 1675 H. Teonge Diary (1825) 95 He goes his syrkett every yeare in the nature of on of our Judges. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 58 They usually make their circuits in the respective vacations after Hilary and Trinity terms. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 637 It was thought desirable that the Western Circuit should not begin till the other circuits had terminated. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. iii. (1858) 114 The judges and the bar ride the circuit. 1861 Willes in Ex parte Fernandez, 30 Law J.C.P. 338 The law gives to the Justices of Assize during their circuits the aid and control of the sheriff of each county. |
| fig. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 538 When Christ shall go his circuit to judge the World in Righteousnesse. 1657 Hinchley in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lviii. 11 A time when God will ride his circuit here in a solemn manner. |
b. concr. Those making the circuit; the judges and barristers; now
esp. the latter.
| a 1714 Burnet Own Time II. 413 The circuits went round the country [of Scotland] as was directed by the proclamation. 1862 Lond. Rev. 30 Aug. 182 The days when the Northern Circuit rode on horseback across the marshes. 1875 Helps Ess., Organiz. Daily Life 183 A leading member of the Circuit. |
c. A route regularly followed by an itinerant entertainer; a number of places of entertainment (theatres, music-halls, etc.) at which the same productions or entertainers are presented successively; a group or chain of theatres, cinemas, etc., under the control of one person or company.
| 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxx. 300 If he only acted like that, what a deal of money he'd draw! He should have kept upon this circuit. 1840 ― Old C. Shop xxxvii. 304 It's our reg'lar summer circuit is the West. 1842 Ainsworth's Mag. II. 565 Elliston..became soon the favourite ‘leader’ on the York ‘circuit’. 1889 Cent. Dict., Circuit, a number of theaters controlled by one manager. 1908 Daily Chron. 31 Oct. 1/4 The De Frece circuit of music-halls. 1913 [see cinematograph theatre s.v. cinematograph n. b]. 1944 Ann. Reg. 1943 345 The 600 cinemas of the Odeon and British Gaumont circuits. 1965 G. Melly Owning-Up vi. 71 It was Jim's job to book bands and send them up to play for anything between one week and three on Duncan's circuit. |
5. The district or division of country through which the judge makes his circuit.
There are now eight such districts in England and Wales, each including several counties,
viz. the Northern, North Eastern, Midland, Western, Oxford, Home or South Eastern, North Wales, and South Wales Circuits.
| 1574 Rich Dial. Mercury & Eng. Soldier, Euerye petye Constable of euerye Parrysh within his cyrquet. 1642 Chas. I Lett. Judges of Ass. 5 July (1641) 6 Some of the ablest Lawyers who ride that Circuit. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. i. iv. (1739) 10 Their Country they divided into Counties or Circuits all under the government of twelve Lords. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Justiciary, The country [Scotland]..is divided into three circuits, the south, west, and north. 1882 W. Ballantine Experiences v. 51 In choosing a circuit, a barrister..is bound by his first choice. |
6. A territorial division of the Methodist churches, comprising a number of congregations lying around some central town or place, and supplied by a series of itinerant preachers.
| 1766 Wesley Wks. (1872) III. 256 The Societies in this Circuit increase. 1791 Hampson Mem. Wesley III. 73 Every part of Britain and America is divided into regular portions, called circuits; and each circuit, containing twenty or thirty places, is supplied by a certain number of travelling preachers, from two to three or four, who go round it in a month or six weeks. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV 142 A number of these circuits..are united and known as a district. 1885 Minutes Wesleyan Conf. 43 Each of the places mentioned in these Stations..is the head of a circuit. |
7. Electr. The course traversed by an electric current between the two poles of a battery; the path of a voltaic current.
| 1746 W. Watson Seq. Exper. & Obs. 26 Several experiments shew, that the electrical force always describes a circuit. 1756 in B. Franklin Exper. & Observ. Electr. (1769) 280 Whether a river..may not be made part of the circuit through which the electric fire passes? instead of the circuit all of wire. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 122, I certainly saw the spark at the time of completing the circuit. 1839 G. Bird Nat. Philos. 199 With the largest circuit yet employed, their union appears to be absolutely instantaneous. 1870 Tyndall Lect. Electr. 2 Interrupting the circuit..Establishing the circuit. 1878 Foster Phys. iii. i. 394 Closing a galvanic circuit. 1881 Spottiswoode in Nature No. 623. 546 When the circuit is broken, so that the current is interrupted..the wire resumes its ordinary condition. |
† 8. Roundabout process or mode:
† a. of speech or expression: circumlocution.
Obs.| 1552 Huloet, Circuit in wordes, ambages. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn i. iv. §2 New terms of art to express their own sense, and to avoid circuit of speech. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 27 This design of his he draws out in such a circuit of words. |
b. of reasoning or the like.
| 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. ii. 98 By long circuit of deduction it may be that euen all truth out of anie truth may be concluded. 1633 Donne Poems (J.), Thou shalt not peep thro' lattices of eyes, Nor hear thro' labyrinths of ears, nor learn By circuit or collections to discern. 1836 I. Taylor Phys. Th. Another Life (1857) 15 Or at best demonstrate its reality by a circuit of reasoning. |
c. Law.
esp. circuit of action = circuity.
| a 1626 Bacon Max. & Uses Com. Law vi. 29 The law in many cases..turneth a man over to a further circuit of remedy. 1670 Blount Law Dict., Circuit of Action..is a longer course of proceeding to recover the thing sued for then is needful. 1751 in Chambers Cycl. |
9. Path. The period of a disease. (
Syd. Soc. Lex.)
10. attrib. and in
Comb., as
circuit barrister,
circuit counsel,
circuit-commission,
circuit-journey,
circuit-judge,
circuit-room,
circuit table, etc. (sense 4);
circuit-superintendent,
circuit-work, etc. (sense 6);
circuit-binding (see
quot.)
= yapp;
circuit-breaker, an instrument which at regular intervals interrupts an electric current;
circuit-closer, any device for closing an electric current;
circuit-court, in Scotland, a court held periodically in the principal towns, similar in function to the English
assize; in
U.S. (
a) Federal courts intermediate in authority between the District Courts and the Supreme Court of the U. S. (see Kent
Commentaries I, ch. on Constitution); (
b) various State Courts so-called for different reasons in particular States;
circuit (fore) edge, a flexible projection to the binding of a book;
circuit-preacher,
-rider U.S., an itinerant preacher serving a circuit (sense 6);
circuit-steward, a principal member in the Methodist circuit nominated yearly by the superintendent;
circuit training, the performance by an athlete of repeated circuits (sense 3 e, above).
| 1850 C. Phillips Curran and his Contemp. 82 Egan was then a *circuit barrister in good practice. |
| 1909 Webster, *Circuit binding, a style of binding for books having flexible projections of the covers, called circuit edges, that fold and meet so as to close in the edges of the book. |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Rheotome or *circuitbreaker. 1879 G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone 251 A delicate circuit-breaker..arranged to break the circuit of a telegraph line at the vibration. |
| 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 354 The judges are sure to come and open the *circuit commissions on the day mentioned. |
| 1708 Royal Proclam. 11 July in Lond. Gaz. No. 4456/1 We hereby Appoint..the said *Circuit-Courts of Justiciary to be Holden..Twice in the Year. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 17 The Circuit courts have appellate jurisdiction from the district courts. They have exclusive cognizance of offences against the United States. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. App. (1862) 419 This power of adjudging a law unconstitutional is also possessed by the Circuit Courts of the United States. |
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 4 Apr. 12/2 In vellum binding with *circuit fore-edge. |
| 1801 Deb. Congress 9 Jan. (1851) 902 His travelling expenses were trifling compared with those of the *Circuit Judges. 1831 Amer. Almanac 197 The eight circuit judges [of New York state] are vice-chancellors for their respective circuits. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 529 The Circuit Judge was authorised to require immediate decision. |
| 1830 E. Williams New-York Ann. Reg. 291 Other towns [of Franklin County, N.Y.] have no settled ministers—Supplied by *circuit and other preachers. 1834 J. M. Peck Gaz. Illinois i. 89 The Illinois Conference [of the Methodist Episcopal Church]..has..fifty-six circuit preachers. 1872 Eggleston End of World xxxix. 245 Then he stepped to the door and called in the circuit preacher. |
| 1837 J. Cutting in A. Wetmore Gaz. Missouri 333 When Patsy gets her eye on the greyhound, she'll feel a heap gladder than when the *circuit rider comes round! 1838 Flagg Far West II. 61 A little, portly, red⁓faced man..announced himself a Baptist circuit-rider. 1864 Congress. Globe 17 May 2317/3 As peripatetic as a tin-peddler's cart or a Methodist circuit-rider. 1909 N.Y. Even. Post (semi-weekly ed.) 23 Sept. 5 A last survival was he of the old circuit rider of early Methodism. |
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 142/1 About the termination of every quarter, the ministers, *circuit-stewards, etc., meet. |
| 1882 W. Ballantine Experiences I. 66 John Locke..was the very soul of the *circuit-table. |
| 1957 Duncan & Bone Oxf. Pkt. Bk. Athletic Training (ed. 2) iii. 25 *Circuit training has only recently been given some practical development. 1964 Even. Standard 3 Dec. 30/1 We call it circuit training because it consists of a series of exercises..each designed to bring into play a different set of muscles. |
▪ II. circuit, v. (
ˈsɜːkɪt)
[f. prec. n.] 1. a. trans. To go, pass, move, or travel round; to make the circuit of, compass about.
| 1549 Compl. Scot. 48 The thyng that circuitis this last tent hauyn or fyrst mobil, is immobil. 1601 Munday Death Earl Huntington i. iii, My son, With several troops hath circuited the court. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. ix. 45 The Phenicians circuited the greatest part of the habitable world. 1774 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry III. 246 Geryon having circuited the air like a faulcon towering without prey..vanishes. 1879 Proctor Pleas. Ways Sc. v. 119 Some..comet, circuiting the sun in about eleven years. |
† b. fig. To compass in thought, circumvent, get round.
Obs.| a 1613 Overbury Charac. Noble Spirit Wks. (1856) 61 He circuits his intents, and seeth the end before he shoot. |
2. intr. To go or move in a circuit.
| [1549 Compl. Scot. 51 The sune circuitis and gais about the eird euyrie xxiiij houris.] 1611 Bible 1 Sam. vii. 16 He went from yeere to yeere in circuit [marg. circuited] to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpeh. 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. vii. 264 They must runne circuiting and fetching a compasse about by the Saints. 1690 Wood Fasti Oxon. I. 31 (L.) It did not become a doctor to circuit for an inferior degree. 1708 J. Philips Cyder (J.), Unless the cordial cup perpetual motion keep Quick circuiting. 1875 Proctor Expanse Heav. 112 The moon as she circuits round the earth. |
3. trans. To form (an electric wire) into a circuit. Hence
ˈcircuited ppl. a.| 1895 Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 758 A circuited instead of a simple overhead wire. |