Search the Dictionary

n Billingagate way of calling names . . . would save abundance of time lost by circumlocution. Swift. Circumlocution office, a term of riducle for a governmental office where business is delayed by passing through the hands of different officials.

Relating to, or consisting of, circumlocutions; periphrastic; circuitous.

The act of circumnavigating, or sailing round. Arbuthnot.

The successive bowing or bending in different directions of the growing tip of the stems of many plants, especially seen in climbing plants.

The act of placing in a circle, or round about, or the state of being so placed. Evelyn.

The act of rolling or revolving round, as a wheel; circumvolution; the state of being whirled round. J. Gregory.

An inscription written around anything. [R.] Ashmole.

Attention to all the facts and circumstances of a case; caution; watchfulness. With silent circumspection, unespied. Milton.

The act of surrounding with a wall or rampart.

The act of carrying anything around, or the state of being so carried.

The act of prevailing over another by arts, address, or fraud; deception; fraud; imposture; delusion. A school in which he learns sly circumvention. Cowper.

The act of flying round. [R.]

A roundabout procedure; a circumlocution. He had neither time nor temper for sentimental circumvolutions. Beaconsfield.

book, or from another person, in his own words; also, the passage or words quoted; quotation. This horse load of citations and fathers. Milton.

by which anything becomes of the color of a lemon; esp., in alchemy, the state of perfection in the philosopher's stone indicated by its assuming a deep yellow color. Thynne.

In the United States, a commission appointed by the President, consisting of three members, not more than two of whom may be adherents of the same party, which has the control, through examinations, of appointments and promotions in the classified civil service. It was created by act of Jan, 16, 1883 (22 Stat. 403).…

The act of civilizing, or the state of being civilized; national culture; refinement. Our manners, our civilization, and all the good things connected with manners, and with civilization, have, in this European world of ours, depended for ages upon two principles -- . . . the spirit of a gentleman, and spirit of religi…

The act of crying out. Sir T. Browne.

process of making clear or transparent, by freeing visible impurities; as, the clarification of wine.

A kind of trumpet, whose note is clear and shrill. He sounds his imperial clarion along the whole line of battle. E. Everett.