Circuit

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: cir=cuit

CIDE DICTIONARY

Circuit, n. [F. circuit, fr. L. circuitus, fr. circuire or circumire to go around; circum around + ire to go.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  The circumference of, or distance round, any space; the measure of a line round an area.  [1913 Webster]

  "The circuit or compass of Ireland is 1,800 miles."  [1913 Webster]
•  That which encircles anything, as a ring or crown.  [1913 Webster]

  "The golden circuit on my head."  [1913 Webster]
•  The space inclosed within a circle, or within limits.  [1913 Webster]

  "A circuit wide inclosed with goodliest trees."  [1913 Webster]
•  A regular or appointed journeying from place to place in the exercise of one's calling, as of a judge, or a preacher.  [1913 Webster]
•  A certain division of a state or country, established by law for a judge or judges to visit, for the administration of justice.  [1913 Webster]
•  Circumlocution.  Huloet.  [1913 Webster]

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 of action 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 circle or Galvanic circle or Voltaic circuit or Galvanic circuit, 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.

Circuit, v. i. 

 To move in a circle; to go round; to circulate.  J. Philips.  [1913 Webster]

Circuit, v. t. 

 To travel around.  T. Warton.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Circuit, n.
1 a a line or course enclosing an area; the distance round. b the area enclosed.
2 Electr. a the path of a current. b the apparatus through which a current passes.
3 a the journey of a judge in a particular district to hold courts. b this district. c the lawyers following a circuit.
4 a chain of theatres or cinemas etc. under a single management.
5 Brit. a motor-racing track.
6 a a sequence of sporting events (the US tennis circuit). b a sequence of athletic exercises.
7 a roundabout journey.
8 a a group of local Methodist churches forming a minor administrative unit. b the journey of an itinerant minister within this.

Idiom

circuit-breaker an automatic device for stopping the flow of current in an electrical circuit.

Etymology

ME f. OF, f. L circuitus f. CIRCUM- + ire it- go

THESAURUS

Circuit

O, air lane, alentours, ambages, ambience, ambit, amplifier circuit, annular muscle, annulus, arena, areola, arsis, association, astable circuit, aureole, back-to-back switching circuit, bailiwick, beat, booking, border, borderland, borderlands, borscht circuit, bound, boundary, bout, break, broken circuit, bypass, campaign, chaplet, circle, circuital field, circuiteer, circuitry, circulate, circulation, circumambiencies, circumambulate, circumbendibus, circumference, circumjacencies, circummigrate, circumnavigate, circumstances, circumvent, circumvolution, circus, close the circle, closed circle, closed circuit, coast-to-coast hookup, come full circle, compass, complete circuit, conference, confines, context, corona, coronet, coupling circuit, course, crown, cycle, date, dead circuit, demesne, department, describe a circle, detour, deviation, diadem, diastole, digression, discus, disk, domain, dominion, downbeat, edge, encircle, encompass, engagement, entourage, environing circumstances, environment, environs, equivalent circuit, eternal return, excursion, expedition, fairy ring, field, flank, flight path, flip-flop circuit, full circle, galvanic circuit, garland, gestalt, girdle, girdle the globe, girth, glory, go about, go around, go round, go the round, grand tour, gyration, gyre, habitat, halo, hemisphere, hookup, hot circuit, itinerary, jaunt, journey, judicial circuit, junket, jurisdiction, lap, lasso, lateral circuit, leg, limit, line, live circuit, logical circle, loop, looplet, magic circle, magnetic circuit, make a circuit, march, margin, microcircuit, milieu, monostable circuit, multiple circuit, multiple series, neighborhood, net, network, nonsinusoidal circuit, noose, orb, orbit, outing, outline, outposts, outskirts, package tour, pale, path, peregrination, perimeter, periphery, pilgrimage, playing engagement, pleasure trip, precinct, precincts, primrose path, printed circuit, progress, province, pulse, purlieus, radio links, radius, realm, rectifier circuit, revolution, revolve, ring, road, rondelle, rotation, round, round trip, roundabout, roundabout way, roundel, rounds, route, rubberneck tour, run, safari, sally, saucer, sea lane, semiconductor circuit, series, series multiple, shoot, short, short circuit, shortcut, situation, skirt, spell, sphere, sphincter, spiral, stalk, stand, suburbs, surround, surroundings, systole, thermionic tube circuit, thesis, total environment, tour, track, trade route, traject, trajectory, trajet, transistor circuit, travels, trek, trip, turn, upbeat, vaudeville circuit, vector field, vicinage, vicinity, vicious circle, voyage, walk, way, wheel, whirl, wreath

ROGET THESAURUS

Circuit

Circuit

N circuit, roundabout way, digression, detour, circumbendibus, ambages, loop, winding, zigzag, circuitous, indirect, roundabout, zigzag, backhanded, by a side wind, by an indirect course, in a roundabout way, from pillar to post.

Region

N region, sphere, ground, soil, area, field, realm, hemisphere, quarter, district, beat, orb, circuit, circle, reservation, pale, compartment, department, clearing, (property) &c 780 (Government), 1 arena, precincts, enceinte, walk, march, patch, plot, parcel, inclosure, close, field, court, enclave, reserve, preserve, street, clime, climate, zone, meridian, latitude, biosphere, lithosphere, territorial, local, parochial, provincial, regional.

Outline

N outline, circumference, perimeter, periphery, ambit, circuit, lines tournure, contour, profile, silhouette, bounds, coast line, zone, belt, girth, band, baldric, zodiac, girdle, tyre, cingle, clasp, girt, cordon, circlet.

Convolution

N convolution, winding, convolution, involution, circumvolution, wave, undulation, tortuosity, anfractuosity, sinuosity, sinuation, meandering, circuit, circumbendibus, twist, twirl, windings and turnings, ambages, torsion, inosculation, reticulation, rivulation, roughness, coil, roll, curl, buckle, spiral, helix, corkscrew, worm, volute, rundle, tendril, scollop, scallop, escalop, kink, ammonite, snakestone, serpent, eel, maze, labyrinth, knot, convoluted, winding, twisted, tortile, tortive, wavy, undated, undulatory, circling, snaky, snake-like, serpentine, serpent, anguill, vermiform, vermicular, mazy, tortuous, sinuous, flexuous, anfractuous, reclivate, rivulose, scolecoid, sigmoid, sigmoidal, spiriferous, spiroid, involved, intricate, complicated, perplexed, labyrinth, labyrinthic, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, peristaltic, daedalian, kinky, knotted, wreathy, frizzly, crepe, buckled, raveled, spiral, coiled, helical, cochleate, cochleous, screw-shaped, turbinated, turbiniform, in and out, round and round, a can of worms, Gordian knot.

Journey

N journey, travel, traveling, wayfaring, campaigning, journey, excursion, expedition, tour, trip, grand tour, circuit, peregrination, discursion, ramble, pilgrimage, hajj, trek, course, ambulation, march, walk, promenade, constitutional, stroll, saunter, tramp, jog trot, turn, stalk, perambulation, noctambulation, noctambulism, somnambulism, outing, ride, drive, airing, jaunt, equitation, horsemanship, riding, manege, ride and tie, basophobia, roving, vagrancy, pererration, marching and countermarching, nomadism, vagabondism, vagabondage, hoboism, gadding, flit, flitting, migration, emigration, immigration, demigration, intermigration, wanderlust, plan, itinerary, guide, handbook, guidebook, road book, Baedeker, Bradshaw, Murray, map, road map, transportation guide, subway map, procession, cavalcade, caravan, file, cortege, column, vehicle, automobile, train, bus, airplane, plane, autobus, omnibus, subway, motorbike, dirt bike, off-road vehicle, van, minivan, motor scooter, trolley, locomotive, legs, feet, pegs, pins, trotters, traveler, depot, railway station, station, traveling, ambulatory, itinerant, peripatetic, roving, rambling, gadding, discursive, vagrant, migratory, monadic, circumforanean, circumforaneous, noctivagrant, mundivagrant, locomotive, wayfaring, wayworn, travel-stained, on foot, on horseback, on Shanks's mare, by the Marrowbone stage: in transitu, en route, Int, come along!.

Circuition

N circuition, circulation, turn, curvet, excursion, circumvention, circumnavigation, circumambulation, northwest passage, circuit, turning, wrench, evolution, coil, corkscrew, turning, circuitous, circumforaneous, circumfluent, round about.