different between circle vs writhe

circle

English

Etymology

From Middle English circle, cercle, from Old French cercle and Latin circulus, diminutive of Latin circus (circle, circus), from Ancient Greek ?????? (kírkos, circle, ring), related to Old English hring (ring). Compare also Old English ?ircul (circle, zodiac), which came from the same Latin source.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: sûr?-k?l, IPA(key): /?s??k?l/
    • (UK) IPA(key): [?s??.k??]
    • (US) IPA(key): [?s?.k??]
  • Rhymes: -??(?)k?l
  • Homophone: cercal
  • Hyphenation: cir?cle

Noun

circle (plural circles)

  1. (geometry) A two-dimensional geometric figure, a line, consisting of the set of all those points in a plane that are equally distant from a given point (center).
    Synonyms: (not in mathematical use) coil, (not in mathematical use) ring, (not in mathematical use) loop
  2. A two-dimensional geometric figure, a disk, consisting of the set of all those points of a plane at a distance less than or equal to a fixed distance (radius) from a given point.
    Synonyms: disc, (in mathematical and general use) disk, (not in mathematical use; UK & Commonwealth only) round
  3. Any shape, curve or arrangement of objects that approximates to or resembles the geometric figures.
    Children, please join hands and form a circle.
    1. Any thin three-dimensional equivalent of the geometric figures.
    2. A curve that more or less forms part or all of a circle.
  4. A specific group of persons; especially one who shares a common interest.
    Synonyms: bunch, gang, group
    • At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. [] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
    • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, [], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"
    • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
      The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
  5. The orbit of an astronomical body.
  6. (cricket) A line comprising two semicircles of 30 yards radius centred on the wickets joined by straight lines parallel to the pitch used to enforce field restrictions in a one-day match.
  7. (Wicca) A ritual circle that is cast three times deosil and closes three times widdershins either in the air with a wand or literally with stones or other items used for worship.
  8. (South Africa) A traffic circle or roundabout.
  9. (obsolete) Compass; circuit; enclosure.
  10. (astronomy) An instrument of observation, whose graduated limb consists of an entire circle. When fixed to a wall in an observatory, it is called a mural circle; when mounted with a telescope on an axis and in Y's, in the plane of the meridian, a meridian or transit circle; when involving the principle of reflection, like the sextant, a reflecting circle; and when that of repeating an angle several times continuously along the graduated limb, a repeating circle.
  11. A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.
    • Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain.
  12. (logic) A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.
    • 1661, Joseph Glanvill, The Vanity of Dogmatizing
      That heavy bodies descend by gravity; and, again, that gravity is a quality whereby a heavy body descends, is an impertinent circle and teaches nothing.
  13. Indirect form of words; circumlocution.
    • 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist
      Has he given the lie, / In circle, or oblique, or semicircle.
  14. A territorial division or district.
  15. (in the plural) A bagginess of the skin below the eyes from lack of sleep.

Derived terms

Related terms

  • circular
  • circulate
  • circus

Descendants

  • Pitcairn-Norfolk: sirkil

Translations

Verb

circle (third-person singular simple present circles, present participle circling, simple past and past participle circled)

  1. (transitive) To travel around along a curved path.
    The wolves circled the herd of deer.
  2. (transitive) To surround.
    A high fence circles the enclosure.
    • 1699, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions
      Their heads are circled with a short turban.
    • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Dungeon
      So he lies, circled with evil.
  3. (transitive) To place or mark a circle around.
    Circle the jobs that you are interested in applying for.
  4. (intransitive) To travel in circles.
    Vultures circled overhead.

Derived terms

  • circle the drain

Translations

Anagrams

  • cleric

circle From the web:

  • what circles the nucleus
  • what circle of hell is lust
  • what circles the planets
  • what circles do loadouts drop
  • what circles the nucleus of an atom
  • what circle of hell is gluttony
  • what circle of hell do i belong in
  • what circle of hell is greed


writhe

English

Etymology

From Middle English writhen, from Old English wr?þan, from Proto-West Germanic *wr?þan, from Proto-Germanic *wr?þan? (to weave, twist, turn) (compare Old High German r?dan (to wind, turn), Old Norse ríða (to wind)), from Proto-Indo-European *wreyt- (to twist, writhe). Compare Lithuanian ri?sti (to unbend, wind, roll).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: r?th, IPA(key): /?a?ð/
  • Rhymes: -a?ð

Verb

writhe (third-person singular simple present writhes, present participle writhing, simple past writhed or (archaic) wrothe, past participle writhed or (archaic) writhen)

  1. (transitive) To twist, to wring (something).
  2. (transitive) To contort (a part of the body).
    • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:
      She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good.
      She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood.
      They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
      Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
      Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
      The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!
  3. (intransitive) To twist or contort the body; to be distorted.
  4. (transitive) To extort.

Translations

Noun

writhe (plural writhes)

  1. (rare) A contortion.
  2. (knot theory) The number of negative crossings subtracted from the number of positive crossings in a knot

Anagrams

  • Wither, whiter, wither, wither-

Middle English

Verb

writhe

  1. Alternative form of writhen

writhe From the web:

  • what writhes
  • what writhes more than
  • writhes meaning
  • what writhen means
  • to weather means
  • writhe what does it mean
  • what does writhing mean
  • what does writhed mean
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