[L. circus circle, circus, a. Gr. κίρκος, κρίκος ring, circle.]
1. Roman Antiq. A large building, generally oblong or oval, surrounded with rising tiers of seats, for the exhibition of public spectacles, horse or chariot races, and the like.
The Circus Maximus, the largest and most celebrated at Rome, is often referred to specifically as the Circus.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., II. ix. 51 a. A place walled about named Circus wher was vsed fyghting and coursyng of horses and running with charettes.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 184. A pleasant vally … like one of those Circusses which in great Cities somewhere doth giue a pleasant spectacle of running horses.
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. xxi. 247. What slaughters were there in the Forum, in the Circus, and open Temples?
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 81. Theatres, Amphitheatres, Circus’s, and other publick enclosed Places, are for the most part uniform and like one another.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. cxxxix. The bloody Circus’ genial laws.
1877. Bryant, Ruins Italica, ii. This broken circus … Flaunting with yellow blossoms.
b. A space or area of similar appearance or use.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., III. 30 Sept. Nothing remains but a naked circus of loose sand.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., VIII. 304. Ye Phæacians, beyond others skill’d To tread the circus with harmonious steps.
2. Mod. A circular arena surrounded by tiers of seats, for the exhibition of equestrian, acrobatic, and other performances. Also transf. the company or ‘troupe’ of performers and their equipage.
1791. (title) The History of the Royal Circus.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), V. xiii. Entertainments at Astley’s or the Circus.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Fate, Wks. (Bohn), II. 328. The equestrians in the circus.
b. The arena for a bull-right.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxxi. Then to the crowded circus forth they fare … The light-limb’d Matadore Stands in the centre, eager to invade The lord of lowing herds.
3. A natural amphitheater; a rounded hollow, or plain encircled by heights.
1836. Disraeli, H. Temple, V. iii. The party found themselves in a circus of hills, clothed with Spanish chestnuts.
1862. Tyndall, Mountaineer., vi. 44. The circus in which the Schallenberg glacier originated.
1889. Boy’s Own Paper, 16 March, 378/1. A large lunar circus … termed the circus of Copernicus.
† 4. A circle or ring. Obs.
1712–4. Pope, Rape Lock, IV. 117. Sooner shall grass in Hyde-park Circus grow. [A fashionable circular drive, called the ‘Ring’ in Chas. I.’s time.]
1748. Lond. Mag., 264. On the right of the sun there was a large circus resembling the colours of a rainbow.
5. (vaguely) Compass; encircling line. rare.
1817. Byron, Lament Tasso, i. I have … made me wings wherewith to overfly The narrow circus of my dungeon wall.
† 6. Med. A circular bandage. Obs.
1811. Hooper, Med. Dict.
7. A circular range of houses. Often in proper names as Oxford Circus, Regent Circus.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 23 April. The same artist who planned the Circus has likewise projected a crescent [at Bath]. Ibid. The Circus is a pretty bauble … and looks like Vespasian’s amphitheatre turned outside in.
1794. Looker-on, No. 89. The squares and circuses are no longer the only scenes of dignified dissipation.
8. attrib. and in Comb., as circus-bench, -horse, -master, -rider, -ring, etc. Circus-movements, ‘a term applied to the movement in a circle which occurs in some unilateral diseases and injuries of the grey centres at the base of the brain’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.)
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 972. A circus-bench, capable of accommodating forty persons.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, liii. 299. He carried his whip in the arm’s-length-way of a circus master following a horse.
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, iii. Like what the circus-riders wear.
1877. trans. Ziemssen’s Cycl. Med., XII. 261. The occurrence of the so-called circus-movements.
1878. Foster, Phys., III. vi. § 2. 498. The animal executes ‘circus movements.’
