[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. Encircling.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iv. 19. Her two branches, those sweet Ornaments Whose circkling shadowes, Kings haue sought to sleep in.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XI. (R.). Their world circling Sire, (Great Neptune).
1701. De Foe, True-born Eng., II. 400. He dwelt in Bright Maria’s Circling Arms.
1877. Furnivall, Leopold Shaks., Introd. 117. See the town nestle under its circling hills.
b. Forming a circle; ranged in a circle.
1724–7. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc., Ded. Treat a’ the circling lugs wi’ sound.
1733. Swift, On Poetry. To whom the tribe of circling wits As to an oracle submits.
1799. Southey, Sonn., x. Scarce doth … The elder yet its circling tufts put forth.
1841. Clough, Early Poems, VII. 109. My station whence the circling land Lies mapped and pictured wide below.
2. Moving in a circle; revolving.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (1841), 43. Ile in these meddowes make a cerckling walke.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. Introd. 11. How circling Motion doth swift time divide.
1671. Milton, P. R., V. 55. Now, too soon for us, the circling hours This dreaded time have compassed.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 7. But rest thee, rest, thou merriest soul That ever loved the circling bowl!
† 3. Circling boy: ‘a species of roarer; one who in some way drew a man into a snare, to cheat or rob him’ (Nares). Obs. slang.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, IV. ii. One Val Cutting that helps … Jordan to roar, a circling boy.
