a. [f. L. circumspect- (see CIRCUMSPECT a.) + -IVE.]
1. Looking around, scanning on all sides.
1635. Glapthorne, Lady Mother, IV. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 170. I should have thought your circumspective Judgment Had spide some error in him.
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 226. Sly, slow things, with circumspective eyes.
1838. Blackw. Mag., XLIV. 534. He might have passed in grand circumspective review … the aberrations of his country.
2. Given to circumspection; cautious, wary. ? Obs.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Surv. Leviath. (1676), 206. To advise the people, to be very circumspective.
1749. Johnson, Irene, V. x. Frame your report with circumspective art.
1843. Blackw. Mag., 317. His scarching eye and circumspective wariness.
