circle around

Related to circle around: roughshod, come full circle

circle around

1. To move in a circular path, perhaps to come back to one's original location. A specific person or thing does not have to be stated after "around" to convey this meaning. Does anyone know why helicopters are circling around outside our building? I can't wait for you here because I'm blocking traffic—I'll have to circle around.
2. To move something in a circular path. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is often used between "circle" and "around." Take this tray of hors d'oeuvres and circle it around to all the people sitting in the living room.
3. To form a circle around someone or something. The shower guests circled around the bride-to-be as she opened presents. The kids circled around the newly hatched chicks in awe.
4. To focus on someone or something. But it's Beth's surprise party, not yours, so all the decorations and games should circle around her and her alone.
5. To occur again in the usual pattern or schedule. I am so ready for summer to circle around again because I hate the cold!
6. To envelop someone or something in something, often a material. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is often used between "circle" and "around." Now circle that piece of fabric around the mannequin like this.
See also: around, circle
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

circle around (over someone or something)

[for a plane or a bird] to fly around above someone, something, or some place. The plane circled around over us for a few minutes and then went on. It circled around over the field.
See also: around, circle
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

circle around

v.
1. To proceed in a circle around someone or something: We circled around the block until they were ready to be picked up.
2. To move something in a circle around someone or something: We circled the dish around the table so everyone could try some.
3. To wrap or place something in a circle around someone or something: We circled the ribbon around the pole.
4. To form a circle around someone or something: The children circled around the storyteller.
5. To proceed in a circle: The plane circled around until it was cleared for landing.
6. To be centered around someone or something: These movie stars think everything circles around them.
7. To come by way of rotation: When the holiday season circles around, I want to have all my shopping done.
See also: around, circle
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • a/(one's) 20
  • back home
  • about/on your person
  • at (one's) expense
  • at expense
  • at somebody's expense
  • at someone's expense
  • be in (one's) good graces
  • be in somebody's good graces
  • be in someone's good graces
References in periodicals archive
But to get two 28" panels involved splitting a 60" panel, so using six 34"- high panels arranged in a circle around the feeder and secured with 12 T-posts is the best management practice both in terms of effectiveness and cost.
Texas fencing test keeps feral hogs out of wildlife feeders, but not white-tailed deer
That's because air circulation in the stratosphere causes gases from the tropics to circle around Earth and move toward the poles.
Cool blast
Troops formed a tight circle around Andjian city centre, where the local administration building was on fire yesterday.
Hundreds dead as troops clamp down on uprising
The cat freaked and ran a circle around the room and then dashed up the staircase.
Painting faux paw
If you like the word around, use circle around or revolve around.
A rant against illogical, but widely accepted, language misusages
A film (shown on DVD) documenting the 1971 performance Bodyshells introduced the playfulness that ran through Bucher's subsequent explorations of the boundaries between the individual body and its surroundings: Large, bell-shaped foam sculptures on Venice Beach forced the performers to hop and circle around each other in slow motion.
Heidi Bucher: Migros Museum Fur Gegenwartskunst
about 15 feet across, chicken feathers, blood and someone had hung makeshift torches in a circle around the trees.
The collected wisdom of ..
These rulers say you can end our fear of terrorism--of sudden, deadly, vicious attacks, a fear new to Americans--by drawing an enormous circle around an area of the world where terrorists come from (Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya) or can be claimed to be connected with (Iraq), and by sending in tanks andplanes to bomb and terrorize whoever lives within that circle.
Our war on terrorism
A child, his family, a town, and a national crisis all circle around a quiet, heroic, and esteemed teacher in this profoundly interesting film.
Butterfly. (La Lengua De La Mariposa)
There was one drawback: Those who have the magazine sent to a post office box found a circle around an aerial photo of the post office.
Big brother is watching
The matrix material passes through a single central port, while the secondary resin or master-batch goes through nine small ports arranged in a circle around the central one.
'Chaotic advection' creates new polymer blend morphologies
The circle around Stefan George (1868-1933) included a high proportion of people of Jewish origin.
"Verkannte bruder"? Stefan George und das deutsch-judische Burgertum zwischen Jahrhundertwende und Emigration
Patrick Joseph Fay, 27, plunged the pen into the forehead of Barry Bennet and then drew a little circle around the wound.
Pen assault man jailed for a month
Altogether the route, a great circle around Lesotho, was 575 miles and took the cyclists 14 days instead of the ten allocated.
Cycling for others. (People: making a difference)
The ship will cross the Indian Ocean and circle around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
Japanese luxury liner starts voyage around the world