(~s, circling, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ 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 ~ in the center...
I wrote down the number 46 and drew a ~ around it.
= ring
N-COUNT
2.
A ~ of something is a round flat piece or area of it.
Cut out 4 ~s of pastry.
...a ~ of yellow light.
= ring
N-COUNT: usu N of n
3.
A ~ of objects or people is a group of them arranged in the shape of a ~.
The monument consists of a ~ of gigantic stones...
We stood in a ~ holding hands.
= ring
N-COUNT: oft N of n
4.
If something ~s an object or a place, or ~s around it, it forms a ~ around it.
This is the ring road that ~s the city.
...the long curving driveway that ~d around the vast clipped lawn.
= en~
VERB: V n, V around/round n
5.
If an aircraft or a bird ~s or ~s something, it moves round in a ~ in the air.
The plane ~d, awaiting permission to land...
There were two helicopters circling around.
...like a hawk circling prey.
VERB: V, V adv/prep, V n
6.
To ~ around someone or something, or to ~ them, means to move around them.
Emily kept circling around her mother...
The silent wolves would track and ~ them.
VERB: V around/round n, V n
7.
If you ~ something on a piece of paper, you draw a ~ 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 ~ 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 ~ of friends...
Alton has made himself fiercely unpopular in certain ~s.
N-COUNT: with supp
9.
In a theatre or cinema, the ~ is an area of seats on the upper floor.
N-SING: the N
10.
see also Arctic Circle , dress ~ , inner ~ , vicious ~ , virtuous ~
11.
If you say that you have come full ~ or have turned full ~, you mean that after a long series of events or changes the same situation that you started with still exists.
We’ve come full ~ and dark-blue jeans are once again the height of style.
PHRASE: V inflects