Word.ws English Dictionary

circling

circling is the present participle and gerund of circle.

Noun

circling (countable and uncountable, plural circlings)

  1. A circular motion.
    • […] one of these birds came wheeling and screaming round his head in a maze of untrackably swift circlings.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
  2. (uncountable) The practice of sitting in a circle and taking turns to speak about one's emotions or experiences while the others listen, intended to be therapeutic or to strengthen relations within the group.
    • The mentoring curriculum included feminist strategies designed to facilitate egalitarian relationships in the groups, including circling, where each person takes a turn to speak while others in the group listen in situations involving decision making or conflict, […]1996, Bonnie J. Leadbeater, Niobe Way, Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities, page 129
  3. (University of Warwick slang) A class of secretive drinking games, each with an unknown set of rules which new players must learn by immersion, taking place with participants sitting in a circle and drinking upon certain conditions being met.

Meaning of circle

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; to orbit.
    • The wolves circled the herd of deer.
    1. (transitive) To surround; to encompass within a circle.
      • A high fence circles the enclosure.
  2. (transitive) To place in a circle; to make a circle.
    • We circled stones around him.
    1. (transitive) To place or mark a circle around.
      • Circle the jobs that you are interested in applying for.
    2. (transitive) To smoke cannabis in a circle, passing the cannabis around from person to person.
      • We circled a joint that afternoon.
    3. (intransitive, transitive) To take part in a magic circle.
      • I circled with that group for three years.

See all 46 meanings of circle

Forms of circling

pluralcirclings

Words formed from circling

Phrases with circling

Questions about circling

What does circling mean?
Circling means a circular motion.
What is circling the present participle and gerund of?
Circling is the present participle and gerund of circle.
What part of speech is circling?
Circling is a noun.
What is the plural of circling?
The plural of circling is circlings.

Words near circling in the dictionary

  1. Circleville
  2. circlewise
  3. circley
  4. circline
  5. circlines
  6. circling
  7. circling back
  8. circling the drain
  9. circling the field
  10. circling the wagons
  11. circling up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circling (page history and authors); circle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “circling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/circling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.