Also 4 -ces, -sice, -cyse, -zize, 4–5 -sise, -syse, 5 -cyce, 6– -size. [ad. OF. circonciser, -cisier; or f. F. circoncis-, stem of circoncire (pr. pple. -cisant, pres. subj. -cise, etc.):—L. circumcīdĕre: see prec. and CIRCUMCIDE.]
I. In Scriptural sense.
1. trans. To cut off the foreskin or prepuce of (males); chiefly as a religious rite of Jews and Mohammedans. Also in Surgery.
(Also to perform an analogous operation on females.)
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1200. Circumcised he was, a-buten schoren … Circumcised on ðe eȝtende day.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2668 (Cott.). Do your knauebarns to circumces [v.r. circumcise]. Ibid. (a. 1400), 11095 (Laud MS.). When they had circumzizid Iohn.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 4326. Cercumsiset sothely in sort with the Iewes.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 329. The Iewys dwellynge at Norwyche … to answere to a complaynt … yt they shulde stele a chylde, and it circumsysyd of the age of a yere.
1611. Bible, Gen. xvii. 11. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskinne, and it shal be a token of the couenant betwixt me and you.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whis., IV. 1557. Some have turnd Turkes for gaine, yet live despisde After they once have been but circumcisde.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 13. The Habassin emperour … is a Jew also from the girdle downward, for he is both circumcised and christened.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 265. The Cauzy … ordered the prisoner to be circumcised against his will.
1863. Collingwood, trans. Waitz’s Introd. Anthrop., I. 106. Rosmann … relates of the women of Wydah, that they can be circumcised like the Hottentot women.
1887. Druitt, Surgeon’s Vade Mecum (ed. 12), 803. To produce a radical cure, the Surgeon must circumcise.
b. fig. Chiefly as a Hebraism, in reference to the purification typified by the rite; partly, with the notion of castration.
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr., 13. Than es a man circumsysede gastely.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 53. O Englande, whyle tyme is gyuen thee, circumcise thy harte.
1611. Bible, Deut. xxx. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., IX. xxviii. With sharpest griefs her heart was circumcis’d.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 85. If you take such an one and circumcise his passions.
II. From the classical Latin sense.
† 2. To cut round. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1608), 636. The flesh round about the wound … to be circumcised and cut with a sharp rasor.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 131. Circumcising them of the bark for about two inches round.
† 3. fig. To cut short, limit, abridge, circumscribe; to cut off. Obs.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. III. xvi. 273. Some circumcise from hence both Phrygia, and Mysia.
a. 1656. Hales, Gold. Rem. (1688), 308. We must circumcise and pare even this our vow and covenant with God.
a. 1672. Wren, in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 239. The Puritan, they saw, was strongly bent to circumcise [the Church] both in authority and revenue.
Hence Circumcising vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2681. Þe werk of circumcising.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 149. Poysoned wounds … cured by incision and circumcising of the flesh.
1611. Bible, Luke ii. 21. When eight dayes were accomplished for the circumcising of the childe, his name was called Jesus.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymns Festiv., Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 215. The circumcising steel.
