Noun

(en noun)

(lb) A two-dimensional geometric figure, a line, consisting of the set of all those points in a plane that are equally distant from another point.

:The set of all points (x'', ''y'') such that (x-1)² + y² = r² is a circle of radius ''r around

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 from another point.

Any thin three-dimensional equivalent of the geometric figures.

:

A curve that more or less forms part or all of a circle.

:

Orbit.

A specific group of persons.

:

* (1800-1859)

*:As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance widened.

*

*: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rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles .

(lb) 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.

(lb) 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.

(lb) A traffic circle or roundabout.

*2011 , Charles E. Webb, Downfall and Freedom , p.120:

*:He arrived at the lakefront and drove around the circle where the amusement park and beach used to be when he was a kid

(lb) Compass; circuit; enclosure.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:in the circle of this forest

(lb) 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 .

A series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain.

(lb) A form of argument in which two or more unproved statements are used to prove each other; inconclusive reasoning.

*(Joseph Glanvill) (1636-1680)

*: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.

Indirect form of words; circumlocution.

* (1579-1625)

*:Has he given the lie, / In circle , or oblique, or semicircle.

A territorial division or district.

:

Noun

(en noun)

A piece or lock of curling hair; a ringlet.

* 1866 , (Louisa May Alcott), , chapter 7:

she took it down, looked long and fondly at it, then, shaking her curls about her face, as if to hide the act, pressed it to her lips and seemed to weep over it in an uncontrollable paroxysm of tender grief.

* {{quote-book, year=1910, author=(Emerson Hough)

, title= The Purchase Price, chapter=1 , passage=Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls .}}

A curved stroke or shape.

* 1995 , John Curtis, Julian Reade, & Dominique Collon, Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum? , page 184:

the backs of their necks and their forelegs are decorated with curls and their necks and bodies are covered with fine, undulating lines.

A spin making the trajectory of an object curve.

* 1909 , Harold Horsfall Hilton, The Six Handicap Golfer's Companion ^{[http://books.google.com/books?id=fZ0XAAAAYAAJ]}, page 38:

It is possible to use the wind which blows from the left to the right by playing well into the wind with the slightest bit of curl on the ball […]

(curling) Movement of a moving rock away from a straight line.

(weightlifting) Any exercise performed by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially those that train the biceps.

* 2007 (Jan/Feb), Jon Crosby, "Your Winter Muscle Makeover", Men's Health , page 54:

Now do a curl and an overhead press, keeping your palms facing in.

(calculus) The vector field denoting the rotationality of a given vector field.

* 1995 , Erich Prisner, Graph dynamics :

In 2D, when Q is a polygonal domain, the singularities of Type (2) disappear because ?'' is the scalar curl''' of ''u'' and is such that its vectorial ' curl is zero.

(calculus, proper noun) The vector operator, denoted $\backslash rm\{curl\}\backslash ;$ or $\backslash vec\{\backslash nabla\}\backslash times\backslash vec\{\backslash left(\backslash cdot\backslash right)\}$, that generates this field.

(agriculture) Any of various diseases of plants causing the leaves or shoots to curl up; often specifically the potato curl.

* 1840 , "Farmers' Department", The Family Magazine , volume 1, page 227:

These potatoes, however, planted the next year, have a fair yield, untouched by the curl .

(music, chiefly, lutherie) The contrasting light and dark figure seen in wood used for stringed instrument making; the flame.