Circle
King James Dictionary [1]
CIRCLE, n.
1. In geometry, a plane figure comprehended by a single curve line, called its circumference, every part of which is equally distant from a point called the center. Of course all lines drawn from the center to the circumference or periphery, are equal to each other. 2. In popular use, the line that comprehends the figure, the plane or surface comprehended, and the whole body or solid matter of a round substance, are denominated a circle a ring an orb the earth. 3. Compass circuit as the circle of the forest. 4. An assembly surrounding the principal person. Hence, any company, or assembly as a circle of friends, or of beauties. Hence the word came to signify indefinitely a number of persons of a particular character, whether associated or not as a political circle the circle of ones acquaintance having however reference to a primary association. 5. A series ending where it begins, and perpetually repeated a going round.
Thus in a circle runs the peasants pain.
6. Circumlocution indirect form of words. 7. In logic, an inconclusive form of argument, when the same terms are proved in orbem by the same terms, and the parts of the syllogism alternately by each other, directly and indirectly or when the foregoing proposition is proved by the following, and the following is inferred from the foregoing as, that heavy bodies descend by gravity, and that gravity is a quality by which a heavy body descends. 8. Circles of the sphere, are such as cut the mundane sphere, and have their periphery either on its movable surface, as the meridians or in another immovable, conterminous and equidistant surface, as the ecliptic, equator, and its parallels. 9. Circles of altitude or almucantars, are circles parallel to the horizon, having their common pole in the zenith, and diminishing as they approach the zenith. 10. Circles of latitude, are great circles perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, passing through its poles and through every star and planet. 11. Circles of longitude, are lesser circles parallel to the ecliptic, diminishing as they recede from it. 12. Circle of perpetual apparition, one of the lesser circles, parallel to the equator, described by any point of the sphere touching the northern point of the horizon, and carried about with the diurnal motion. The stars within this circle never set. 13. Circle of perpetual occultation, another lesser circle at a like distance from the equator, which includes all the stars which never appear in our hemisphere. 14. Diurnal circles, are immovable circles supposed to be described by the several stars and other points in the heavens, in their diurnal rotation round the earth, or rather in the rotation of the earth round its axis. 15. Horary circles, in dialing, are the lines which show the hours on dials. 16. Circles of the empire, the provinces or principalities of the German empire, which have a right to be present at the diets. Maximilian I. divided the empire into six circles at first, and afterwards into ten Austria, Burgundy, Lower Rhine, Bavaria, Upper Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, Upper Rhine, Westphalia, and Lower Saxony. 17. Druidical circles, in British Topography, are certain ancient inclosures formed by rude stones circularly arranged as Stone-henge near Salisbury.
CIRCLE,
1. To move round to revolve round.
And other planets circle other suns.
2. To encircle to encompass to surround to inclose. 3. To circle in, to confine to keep together.
CIRCLE, To move circularly as, the bowl circles the circling years.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): (n.) The line that bounds such a figure; a circumference; a ring.
(2): (n.) An instrument of observation, the graduated limb of which consists of an entire circle.
(3): (n.) A plane figure, bounded by a single curve line called its circumference, every part of which is equally distant from a point within it, called the center.
(4): (n.) A round body; a sphere; an orb.
(5): (n.) Compass; circuit; inclosure.
(6): (v. i.) To move circularly; to form a circle; to circulate.
(7): (n.) A circular group of persons; a ring.
(8): (n.) A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.
(9): (n.) A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.
(10): (n.) Indirect form of words; circumlocution.
(11): (n.) A territorial division or district.
(12): (n.) A company assembled, or conceived to assemble, about a central point of interest, or bound by a common tie; a class or division of society; a coterie; a set.
(13): (n.) To move around; to revolve around.
(14): (n.) To encompass, as by a circle; to surround; to inclose; to encircle.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
( חוּג , Chug ) , any part of a curve, an arch. The word is applied ( Job 22:14, where, however, it is translated "circuit") to the heavens, which the ancients supposed to be a hollow sphere. They imagined that the sky was solid, and extended like an arch over the earth. The word is also referred to the earth in Isaiah 40:22, and to the surface of the Ocean in Proverbs 8:27, where it is rendered "compass;" in both which passages it still seems to mean the celestial vault, as spanning these. In Wisdom of Solomon 13:2, the Greek term Κύκλος is so rendered, with reference to the path of the stars. (See Circuit).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
sûr´k ' l : Is used with reference to the vault of the heavens (הוּג , hūgh ) in Isaiah 40:22 , and in a similar sense in The Wisdom of Solomon 13:2 (Revised Version margin), "circle of stars" (κύκλος ἄστρων , kúklos ástrōn ). It is also used in the sense of surrounding territory, as in the expression "circle of Jordan" ( Genesis 13:10 the Revised Version, margin). See also Ciccar; Astronomy , III, 1.
