encircle

From en- +‎ circle.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɜːkl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɝkl̩/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kəl

encircle (third-person singular simple present encircles, present participle encircling, simple past and past participle encircled)

1. (transitive) To surround, form a circle around.
   • 1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 70:

     […] two Russian armies would advance into East Prussia, one westward from the Niemen, the other northward from the Narew, with the object of encircling and immobilizing all enemy forces there.

   • 2000 June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, in America‎, volume 182, number 21:

     Down through the centuries, as the Holy Spirit graces person after person in land after land, they form together a grand company of "friends of God and prophets" (Wis. 7:27); a community of holy people endeavoring to live their lives praising God, loving each other and struggling for justice and peace. This is a company that not only encircles the globe in space but stretches backward and forward in time.

2. (transitive) To move or go around completely.
   • 1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 385:

     It is also customary in the Orient and among Sephardim for the mourners to encircle the coffin of an erudite person seven times and recite Yoshayv besayter while making each circuit.

• circulize
• orb

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