Circuit

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)kɪt

Origin

From Middle English circuit, from Old French circuit, from Latin circuitus ("a going round"), from circuire ("go round"), from circum ("around") + ire

Full definition of circuit

Noun

1. The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution; as, the periodical circuit of the earth around the sun.
2. The circumference of, or distance around, any space; the measure of a line around an area.
• w, So the circuit or compass of Ireland is 1,800 miles, which is 200 less than Caesar doth reckon or account.
3. That which encircles anything, as a ring or crown.
• 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage Until the golden circuit on my head, Like to the glorious sun's transparent beams, Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw.
4. The space enclosed within a circle, or within limits.
• 1592, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, "Fondling," she saith, "since I have hemm'd thee here Within the circuit of this ivory pale, I'll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer: Feed where thou wilt, on mountain, or in dale; Graze on my lips; and if those hills be dry, Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.
• 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, A circuit wide enclosed with goodliest trees.
5. (electricity) Enclosed path of an electric current, usually designed for a certain function.
6. A regular or appointed journeying from place to place in the exercise of one's calling, as of a judge, or a preacher.
7. (legal) A certain division of a state or country, established by law for a judge or judges to visit, for the administration of justice.
8. (legal) Abbreviation of circuit court
9. (Methodist Church) A district in which an itinerant preacher labors.
10. By analogy to the proceeding three, a set of theaters among which the same acts circulate; especially common in the heyday of vaudeville.
11. (obsolete) circumlocution
• HuloetThou hast used no circuit of words.

Related terms

• circuit board
• circuit breaker
• circuit court
• circuitous
• circuitry
• Galvanic circuit
• integrated circuit
• printed circuit
• short circuit
• Voltaic circuit

Verb

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To move in a circle; to go round; to circulate.
2. (obsolete) To travel around.Having circuited the air.----