[f. L. circumflex- ppl. stem of circumflectĕre: see prec.; but in II. from prec.; in the former case the stress is on -fle·x, in the latter on ci·rcum-, as in the adj.]
I. 1. trans. To bend or wind round.
1644–58. Cleveland, Gen. Poems (1677), 39. With a splay mouth, & a nose circumflext.
1673. T. Jordan, in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 514. A Reynard Gules, with a Gooseneck in his mouth, and her Body circumflex’d over his Back.
1851. Times, 19 Sept., 5/5. The last coil [of submarine cable] being securely circumflexed at about 4 o’clock.
b. To arch over with something bent round.
1850. Browning, Xmas Eve &c. 177. Till the heaven of heavens were circumflext [with a rainbow].
† 2. intr. To bend round. Obs.
1661. Morgan, Sph. Gentry, II. i. 13. That doth circumflex and turn down like a Flower de Lice.
II. 3. trans. To put or take a circumflex accent upon; to write or pronounce with a circumflex.
1565. Cooper, Dict. Hist., s.v. Britannia, Fyndynge in Suidas, that Prytania in greeke, with a circumflexed aspiration, doeth signifie metalles.
1751. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIV. 80. Acute-toned words of the First and Second Declensions circumflex all their Genitives and Datives.
1774. Mitford, Harm. Lang., 66. It was always acuted or circumflexed.
1813. Month. Mag., XXXVI. 425. Letters that are circumflexed must be pronounced long.
† b. humorous. To accentuate strongly. Obs.
1661. L. Griffin, Doctr. Asse, Asse’s Compl., 8. We are none of those, That Circumflex their Sermons with their Nose, And mingle Hopkins Rimes, with Wisdomes Prose!
4. To bracket, conjoin in writing with a curved line, (. (Cf. CIRCUMFLEX sb. 3.) ? Obs.
1805. J. Poole, Reply R. Gardiner’s Answ., 9. By some flourish of a very free pen … they became circumflexed into one date.
