Forms: 4–5 cercle(n, sercle(n, serkle, -yn, 6 circkle, 6– circle. [f. the sb.; or a. F. cercler. Cf. also CIRCULE v.]
1. trans. To surround or encompass with, or as with, a circle; to enclose in a circle; = ENCIRCLE 1. (Now chiefly poet.)
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1717. That with his bond Love of his vertu liste To cerclen hertes alle and fast bynde.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3038. Hir ene … Serklyt with heris On the browes so bryght.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. (R.). Whose heads forgrowen with pine, circled alway With misty cloudes.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 382. Th’ Inperiall mettall, circling now thy head.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 626. Of beaming sunnie Raies a golden tiar Circled his Head.
1814. Month. Mag., XXXVIII. 32. I … circled a rice meadow with dikes.
1859. Tennyson, Geraint & Enid, I. 547. The town Flow’d in, and settling circled all the lists.
b. with about, around, in.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1619. So cerclith it the welle aboute.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., III. i. 277. You heauie people, circle me about.
1645. Digby, Nat. Bodies, iv. 34 (J.). To limit and circle them in.
a. 1667. Cowley, To His Majesty. The Sea which circles us around.
a. 1850. Rossetti, Dante & Circle, I. (1874), 104. Mine eyes … came at last to be circled about with red.
† c. refl. Obs.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), To Rdr. Diogenes … circled himselfe in the circumference of a tubbe.
2. To make the circuit of, move round.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 84. It wyl bee saulfer … far streicts crabbye to circle.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 170 (J.). The Lords that were appointed to circle the Hill, had some dayes before planted themselues (as at the Receipt) in places conuenient.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 65. Thrice the Equinoctial Line He circl’d.
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 244. Other planets circle other suns.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 382. They circled the island seven times.
1848. Blackw. Mag., LXIV. 170. Stalking a ‘blesbok’ or circling a bustard—the latter process consisting in riding round the birds in large but decreasing circles.
3. intr. To move in a circle (around, about, etc.).
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 453/2. Serklyn, or make a sercle, Circulo.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1622), 108. Shee [a hawk] went circkling, and compassing about, rising so with the lesse sence of rising.
1643. Milton, Divorce, I. (1851), vi. 33. One of the highest arks that human contemplation circling upwards, can make.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 203. The busy whisper circling round Convey’d the dismal tidings when he frown’d.
1870. Proctor, Other Worlds than Ours, ii. 44. The orbs which circle around the sun.
b. Said of wine, etc., passing round the table.
1725. Pope, Odyss., II. 282. While the bowl circles, and the banquet warms.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, V. xxxiv. The mazers four … Thrice let them circle round the board.
c. Mil. Of cavalry: To sweep round on a moving flank over a more or less wide circle; whereas the ‘wheeling’ of infantry is done on a fixed flank as pivot, and on as little ground as possible.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, VIII. 410. Guards as he turns, and circles as he wheels.
1796–7. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1803), 142. A close column must loosen its divisions before it can well march in front, and its changes of direction must be made circling, and on a moving flank. Ibid., 259. To move up rapidly, and circle round each other, and the enemy’s flank.
1833. Regul. & Instr. Cavalry, I. 146. The … Files should … circle ‘Right.’
4. intr. To form a circle; to stand or extend in a circle. rare.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. iii. A tuft of Trees grew circling in a ranke.
1808. J. Barlow, Columb., III. 335. Those plains, immensely circling, feel his beams.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., V. xxiv. That proud ring Of peers who circled round the King.
† b. refl. To extend in a circle. Obs.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. vii. § 12. The main Branches in the outer Coat of a Kernel, circling themselves on both hands from the place of their first entrance.
