CIRCUIT

lap, circle, circuit

(noun) movement once around a course; “he drove an extra lap just for insurance”

tour, circuit

(noun) a journey or route all the way around a particular place or area; “they took an extended tour of Europe”; “we took a quick circuit of the park”; “a ten-day coach circuit of the island”

circuit, electrical circuit, electric circuit

(noun) an electrical device that provides a path for electrical current to flow

circuit

(noun) (law) a judicial division of a state or the United States (so-called because originally judges traveled and held court in different locations); one of the twelve groups of states in the United States that is covered by a particular circuit court of appeals

circumference, circuit

(noun) the boundary line encompassing an area or object; “he had walked the full circumference of his land”; “a danger to all races over the whole circumference of the globe”

circuit

(noun) an established itinerary of venues or events that a particular group of people travel to; “she’s a familiar name on the club circuit”; “on the lecture circuit”; “the judge makes a circuit of the courts in his district”; “the international tennis circuit”

circuit

(verb) make a circuit; “They were circuiting about the state”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

circuit (plural circuits)

The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution

The circumference of, or distance around, any space; the measure of a line around an area.

That which encircles anything, as a ring or crown.

The space enclosed within a circle, or within limits.

(electricity) Enclosed path of an electric current, usually designed for a certain function.

A regular or appointed trip from place to place as part of one's job

(legal) The jurisdiction of certain judges within a state or country, whether itinerant or not.

(historical) Various administrative divisions of imperial and early Republican China, including

The counties at the fringes of the empire, usually with a non-Chinese population, from the Han to the Western Jin.

The 10 or so major provinces of the empire from the Tang to the early Yuan.

Major provincial divisions from the Yuan to early Republican China.

(legal) Abbreviation of circuit court.

(religion) Methodism: The basic grouping of local Methodist churches.

By analogy to the proceeding three, a set of theaters among which the same acts circulate; especially common in the heyday of vaudeville.

(motor racing) A track on which a race in held; a racetrack

(obsolete) circumlocution

(Scientology) A thought that unconsciously goes round and round in a person's mind and controls that person.

(graph theory) A closed path, without repeated vertices allowed

Synonyms

• (path or distance around a space): periplus (naval)

• (Imperial Chinese administrative divisions): dao; lu, route (Later Jin to Song); tao (obsolete)

Verb

circuit (third-person singular simple present circuits, present participle circuiting, simple past and past participle circuited)

(intransitive, obsolete) To move in a circle; to go round; to circulate.

(transitive, obsolete) To travel around.

Source: Wiktionary

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Cir"cuit, n. Etym: [F. circuit, fr. L. circuitus, fr. circuire or circumire to go around; circum around + ire to go.]

1. The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution; as, the periodical circuit of the earth round the sun. Watts.

2. The circumference of, or distance round, any space; the measure of a line round an area. The circuit or compass of Ireland is 1,800 miles. J. Stow.

3. That which encircles anything, as a ring or crown. The golden circuit on my head. Shak.

4. The space inclosed within a circle, or within limits. A circuit wide inclosed with goodliest trees. Milton.

5. A regular or appointed journeying from place to place in the exercise of one's calling, as of a judge, or a preacher.

6. (a) (Law) A certain division of a state or country, established by law for a judge or judges to visit, for the administration of justice. Bouvier. (b) (Methodist Church) A district in which an itinerant preacher labors.

7. Circumlocution. [Obs.] "Thou hast used no circuit of words." Huloet. Circuit court (Law), a court which sits successively in different places in its circuit (see Circuit, 6). In the United States, the federal circuit courts are commonly presided over by a judge of the supreme court, or a special circuit judge, together with the judge of the district court. They have jurisdiction within statutory limits, both in law and equity, in matters of federal cognizance. Some of the individual States also have circuit courts, which have general statutory jurisdiction of the same class, in matters of State cognizance.

– Circuit or Circuity of action (Law), a longer course of proceedings than is necessary to attain the object in view.

– To make a circuit, to go around; to go a roundabout way.

– Voltaic or Galvanic circuit or circle, a continous electrical communication between the two poles of a battery; an arrangement of voltaic elements or couples with proper conductors, by which a continuous current of electricity is established.

Cir"cuit, v. i.

Definition: To move in a circle; to go round; to circulate. [Obs.] J. Philips.

Cir"cuit, v. t.

Definition: To travel around. [Obs.] "Having circuited the air." T. Warton.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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