v. Also -girate. [f. CIRCUM + L. gȳrāt- ppl. stem of gȳrāre to turn or wheel round: see -ATE.]
1. trans. To cause to turn or wheel round; to twist or twine. ? Obs.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. i. II. xliii. The soul about it self circumgyrates Her various forms.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 334. Various sorts of Vessels, curl’d, circumgyrated, and complicated together.
2. intr. To turn or wheel about, to roll round; to travel round, make circuits.
1683. E. Hooker, Pref. Pordage’s Mystic Div., 24. The whol frame of the World seemeth to me … to circumgyrate, to wheel, whirl, and turn round about in a Topsi-Turvi.
1830–2. Bentham, Justice & Codific. Petit., Wks. 1843, V. 479/2. Circumgirating, as if by steam, on a wheel without a drag.
3. trans. To go round, travel round. rare.
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. xxiv. 564. It took an active man … ten hours to circumgirate the town.
