CIRCLE


Meaning of CIRCLE in English

transcription, транскрипция: [ sɜ:(r)k(ə)l ]

( circles, circling, circled)

Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.

1.

A circle is a shape consisting of a curved line completely surrounding an area. Every part of the line is the same distance from the centre of the area.

The flag was red, with a large white circle in the center...

I wrote down the number 46 and drew a circle around it.

= ring

N-COUNT

2.

A circle of something is a round flat piece or area of it.

Cut out 4 circles of pastry.

...a circle of yellow light.

= ring

N-COUNT : usu N of n

3.

A circle of objects or people is a group of them arranged in the shape of a circle.

The monument consists of a circle of gigantic stones...

We stood in a circle holding hands.

= ring

N-COUNT : oft N of n

4.

If something circles an object or a place, or circles around it, it forms a circle around it.

This is the ring road that circles the city.

...the long curving driveway that circled around the vast clipped lawn.

= encircle

VERB : V n , V around/round n

5.

If an aircraft or a bird circles or circles something, it moves round in a circle in the air.

The plane circled, awaiting permission to land...

There were two helicopters circling around.

...like a hawk circling prey.

VERB : V , V adv / prep , V n

6.

To circle around someone or something, or to circle them, means to move around them.

Emily kept circling around her mother...

The silent wolves would track and circle them.

VERB : V around/round n , V n

7.

If you circle something on a piece of paper, you draw a circle around it.

Circle the correct answers on the coupon below.

= ring

VERB : V n

8.

You can refer to a group of people as a circle when they meet each other regularly because they are friends or because they belong to the same profession or share the same interests.

He has a small circle of friends...

Alton has made himself fiercely unpopular in certain circles.

N-COUNT : with supp

9.

In a theatre or cinema, the circle is an area of seats on the upper floor.

N-SING : the N

10.

see also Arctic Circle , dress circle , inner circle , vicious circle , virtuous circle

11.

If you say that you have come full circle or have turned full circle , you mean that after a long series of events or changes the same situation that you started with still exists.

We’ve come full circle and dark-blue jeans are once again the height of style.

PHRASE : V inflects

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Английский словарь Коллинз COBUILD для изучающих язык на продвинутом уровне.