[f. CIRCLE v.]
1. Formation of a circle or circles. b. quasi-concr. A circular formation.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. xiii. Within the cerclynge of her eyen bryght was paradise.
1646. A. Henderson, in Macrie, Life (1846), 54. While Archimedes was drawing his figures and circlings in the sand.
1818. Keats, Endymion, IV. 340. Diving swans appear Above the crystal circlings white and clear.
2. Movement in a circle; revolution.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 453/2. Serclynge, Circulacio.
1622–52. Heylyn, Cosmogr., I. (1652), 277. In the circlings of the fore-said River.
1864. Glasgow Herald, 24 Sept., 6/2. I don’t see how circling with the trawl among drift-nets should do any harm.
1877. L. Morris, Epic Hades, III. 270. The circling of the suns.
† 3. = CIRCUITION 2.
1623. W. Sclater, Tythes Revised, 9. Say if you can without circling.
