<B>circumspect, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> watchful on all sides; cautious or prudent; careful. <BR> <I>Ex. His drinking habits have never been exactly circumspect (Harper's).</I> (SYN) wary, discreet. adv. <B>circumspectly.</B> noun <B>circumspectness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="circumspection">
<B>circumspection, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>circumspect action or conduct; care; caution; prudence. <DD><B> 2. </B>watchful and cautious observation of circumstances or events. </DL>
<A NAME="circumspective">
<B>circumspective, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> given to or marked by circumspection; watchful; cautious. </DL>
<A NAME="circumstance">
<B>circumstance, </B>noun, verb, <B>-stanced,</B> <B>-stancing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a condition that accompanies an act or event. <BR> <I>Ex. The place, the weather, and other circumstances made the picnic a great success.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a fact or event. <BR> <I>Ex. It was a lucky circumstance that she found her money.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>unimportant details in a narration; full detail. <BR> <I>Ex. The explorer told of his adventure with great circumstance.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>conditions that affect a person or thing, taken collectively (singular and without an article). <BR> <I>Ex. All are sons of circumstance (Byron).</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>a detail connected with a fact or event, especially an unessential detail. <DD><B> 6. </B>ceremony; display; formality. <BR> <I>Ex. The royal procession advanced with pomp and circumstance.</I> <DD><B> 7. </B>(Obsolete.) a material adjunct, appendage, appurtenance, matter, or thing belonging. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to place in specified circumstances; subject to material or other conditions. <BR> <I>Ex. They are much better circumstanced than we are.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Obsolete.) to furnish with details; attach particulars to. <BR> <I>Ex. The poet took the matters of fact as they came down to him, and circumstanced them after his own manner (Joseph Addison).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Obsolete.) to qualify with conditions. <BR> <I>Ex. interpositions so guarded and circumstanced (Samuel Butler).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>circumstances,</B> </I>the condition or state of affairs. <BR> <I>Ex. A rich person is in good circumstances; a poor person is in bad circumstances. He was forced by circumstances to resign.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>under no circumstances,</B> </I>never; no matter what the conditions are. <BR> <I>Ex. Under no circumstances should you reveal the secret of the surprise party we are planning.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>under the circumstances,</B> </I>because of conditions; things being as they are or were. <BR> <I>Ex. The tickets to that show were sold out, and under the circumstances there was no choice but to try to get tickets to another show.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="circumstantial">
<B>circumstantial, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>depending on or based on circumstances. <BR> <I>Ex. The usual character of human testimony is substantial truth under circumstantial variety (William Paley).</I> <DL COMPACT><DD> See also <B>circumstantial evidence.</B> (SYN) conditional, contingent. <DD><B> 2. </B>not essential; not important; incidental. <BR> <I>Ex. Minor details are circumstantial compared with the main fact.</I> (SYN) subsidiary, accidental. <DD><B> 3. </B>giving full and exact details; complete. <BR> <I>Ex. a circumstantial report of the accident.</I> (SYN) detailed, minute. adv. <B>circumstantially.</B> noun <B>circumstantialness.</B> </DL>
</DL>
<A NAME="circumstantialevidence">
<B>circumstantial evidence,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> evidence that depends on the accompanying circumstances of a crime. If stolen jewels are found in a man's possession, they are circumstantial evidence that he stole them. If somebody saw him steal them, that would be direct evidence. <BR> <I>Ex. He was accused of robbing the house on the circumstantial evidence of being the only person seen entering it that day.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="circumstantiality">
<B>circumstantiality, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>circumstantial quality; attention to details; particularity. <DD><B> 2. </B>a circumstantial matter; a detail. </DL>
<A NAME="circumstantiate">
<B>circumstantiate, </B>transitive verb, <B>-ated,</B> <B>-ating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to give the circumstances of; set forth, narrate, support, or prove with details or particulars. <BR> <I>Ex. Defoe ... has so plausibly circumstantiated his false historical records as to make them pass for genuine, even with critics (Thomas De Quincey).</I> noun <B>circumstantiation.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="circumstellar">
<B>circumstellar, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> surrounding or revolving about a star. <BR> <I>Ex. circumstellar dust.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="circumterrestrial">
<B>circumterrestrial, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> surrounding or revolving about the earth. <BR> <I>Ex. circumterrestrial space, a circumterrestrial satellite.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="circumvallate">
<B>circumvallate, </B>adjective, verb, <B>-lated,</B> <B>-lating.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>encircled with, or as if with, a rampart, wall, trench, or other defense. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Anatomy.) surrounded by a wall or structure resembling a rampart. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to encircle with a rampart, wall, trench, or other defense. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) The impenetrable barrier of ... self-love that circumvallated his heart (New Monthly Magazine).</I> noun <B>circumvallation.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="circumvascular">
<B>circumvascular, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> situated or extending around a blood vessel. </DL>
<A NAME="circumvent">
<B>circumvent, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to get the better of or defeat by trickery. <BR> <I>Ex. The dishonest merchant was always trying to circumvent the law. With a commonplace capacity, and with a narrow political education, he intended to circumvent the most profound statesman of his age (John L. Motley).</I> (SYN) outwit, cheat, overreach. <DD><B> 2. </B>to go around. <BR> <I>Ex. He took a roundabout route to circumvent the traffic on the main road.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to surround or encompass by hostile stratagem; catch or try to catch in a trap. noun <B>circumventer,</B> <B>circumventor.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="circumvention">
<B>circumvention, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act of circumventing. </DL>
<A NAME="circumventive">
<B>circumventive, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> inclined to or marked by circumvention. </DL>
<B>circumvolution, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>a rolling, whirling, or turning around an axis or center; revolution; rotation; gyration. <DD><B> b. </B>a single complete turn, revolution, or rotation. <DD><B> 2a. </B>the winding, rolling, or folding of a thing around something else. <DD><B> b. </B>a single fold or turn of anything so wound. <DD><B> 3a. </B>winding or moving in a sinuous course. <DD><B> b. </B>a winding; sinuosity. <DD><B> 4. </B>a roundabout course or procedure. </DL>
<A NAME="circumvolve">
<B>circumvolve, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb, <B>-volved,</B> <B>-volving.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to turn or revolve. </DL>
<A NAME="circus">
<B>circus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>a traveling show of acrobats, clowns, horses, riders, and wild animals. <BR> <I>Ex. Circuses usually go on tour during the summer months.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>the performers who give the show or the performances they give. <BR> <I>Ex. The whole town turned out to see the circus.</I> <DD><B> c. </B>the circular area, often covered by a large tent and with tiers of seats for spectators, in which such a performance is given. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal, Figurative.) <DD><B> a. </B>an amusing person or thing. <DD><B> b. </B>a lively time; noisy disturbance; uproar. <BR> <I>Ex. We're going to have a regular circus.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a round, oval, or oblong space with seats around it in rows, each row higher than the one in front of it. Contests among gladiators, chariot races, and other public spectacles took place in circuses in ancient Rome. <BR> <I>Ex. Such were the bloody circus' genial laws (Byron).</I> (SYN) amphitheater. <DD><B> 4. </B>(British.) <DD><B> a. </B>a circular area at a big traffic junction; traffic circle. <BR> <I>Ex. Piccadilly Circus.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>a circular arrangement of buildings. <BR> <I>Ex. Regent Circus.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Especially British.) a natural amphitheater; rounded hollow. <BR> <I>Ex. The party found themselves in a circus of hills (Benjamin Disraeli).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B><B>=flying circus.</B> <DD><B> 7. </B>(Obsolete.) a ring; circle. </DL>
<A NAME="circusmaximus">
<B>Circus Maximus,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a huge amphitheater in ancient Rome between the Palatine and Aventine Hills. </DL>
<A NAME="circusy">
<B>circusy</B> or <B>circussy, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> resembling or characteristic of a circus. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) There is ... something slightly circusy about this proposed parade of American technology (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="cire">
<B>cire, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>treated with paraffin or wax to give a smooth, lustrous effect. <BR> <I>Ex. a cire fabric.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>highly glossy, as if waxed. <BR> <I>Ex. A chapeau of cire silk or straw (Glasgow Herald).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a cire fabric or other material. </DL>
<A NAME="cireperdue">
<B>cire-perdue, </B>adjective. or <B>cire perdue,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> having to do with or designating a process for casting statuary, precision parts, dental work, and other fine work, in metal, by preparing a model with an outer layer of wax, surrounding it with a plaster mold, heating it so as to melt out the wax, and filling the space with molten metal; lost-wax. </DL>
<A NAME="cirlbunting">
<B>cirl bunting,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a common European bunting. </DL>
<A NAME="cirmil">
<B>cir mil,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> circular mil. </DL>
<A NAME="cirque">
<B>cirque, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>a circular space. <DD><B> b. </B>(Geology.) a natural amphitheater encircled by heights, especially one in the mountains formed by erosion at the head of a glacier. <DD><B> 2. </B>a circle, ring, or circlet of any sort. <DD><B> 3. </B><B>=circus.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="cirrate">
<B>cirrate, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Zoology.) furnished with cirri. </DL>
<A NAME="cirrhosis">
<B>cirrhosis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a chronic disease of the liver characterized by degeneration of liver cells and hardening due to great increase of fibrous tissue on the liver. <DD><B> 2. </B>a similar disease of the kidneys or other organs. </DL>
