[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To go, pass, move or travel round; to make the circuit of, compass about.
1549. Compl. Scot., 48. The thyng that circuitis this last tent hauyn or fyrst mobil, is immobil.
1601. Munday, Death Earl Huntington, I. iii. My son, With several troops hath circuited the court.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. ix. 45. The Phenicians circuited the greatest part of the habitable world.
1774. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, III. 246. Geryon having circuited the air like a faulcon towering without prey … vanishes.
1879. Proctor, Pleas. Ways Sc., v. 119. Some … comet, circuiting the sun in about eleven years.
† b. fig. To compass in thought, circumvent, get round. Obs.
a. 1613. Overbury, Charac. Noble Spirit, Wks. (1856), 61. He circuits his intents, and seeth the end before he shoot.
2. intr. To go or move in a circuit.
[1549. Compl. Scot., 51. The sune circuitis and gais about the eird euyrie xxiiij houris.]
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. vii. 16. He went from yeere to yeere in circuit [marg. circuited] to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. vii. 264. They must runne circuiting and fetching a compasse about by the Saints.
1691. Wood, Fasti Oxon., I. 664 (L.). It did not become a Doctor to circuit for an inferior Degree.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, II. 65 (J.). Unless The Cordial Glass perpetual Motion keep, Quick circuiting.
1875. Proctor, Expanse Heav., 112. The moon as she circuits round the earth.
