circumvolation

Noun

circumvolation (countable and uncountable, plural circumvolations)

1. (archaic) The act of flying round.
   • It has already been shown that, in the popular game of "the flyers," a high pole surmounted by one man served as the pivot for the circumvolation of the four performers, who "acted" the "flight of time."1901, Zelia Nuttall, The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations, page 58
   • Favourable conditions permitted the "circumvolation" of the world in twenty-four hours. But flying had not become general and was still the exclusive privilege of the council and its supporters.1903 November, Richard D. Micou, “The World of the Twenty-Second Century”, in University of Virginia Magazine, volume 47, page 119
2. (archaic) The act of surrounding with a military force; the creation of a cordon.
   • [N]everthelesse, to make the blockinge of it more easie, for there is no waie better to block upp a place then by approaching it soe nigh as may bee (especiallie, when an enemie is not expected that cann releive it by force), for the nigher you approche unto it, the narrower is the circumvolation...1627 October 12, Charles Dalton, quoting Edward Cecil, Life and Times of General Sir Edward Cecil, published 1885, page 277
   • In Consequence a Party of the Rangers was instantly Detached thither to Assist in Pursuing them &c And About the Same Time, the long Projected Cordon or Path of Circumvolation was also begun to be Cut by 700 Negro Slaves Around the Colony, […]1790, John Gabriel Stedman, Narrative of Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, published 2015
3. (archaic) Circulation; the act of moving around something.
   • When by her Unalterable Circumvolation, ſhe had ſupply'd the Defects and Weakneſs of the Liquor; and made moſt of the Company Drunk and Giddy with obſerving the Nimbleneſs of her Tail; which, according to the Knife Grinders Song, rand Round and around, and a-round-a, ſhe gave a Stamp with her Foot...1718, Edward Ward, The London-spy Compleat, page 259
   • It may be conjectured that the circumvolation of these moved the ether, and occasioned that whistling, the gentle pleasantness of which bore an adequate agreement with their well-timed motion.1790, Bell's New Pantheon, page 140
4. (archaic, figuratively) Vacillation; the act of changing one's mind repeatedly.
   • The most unhappy Circumstance in our Protestant Priesthood of this Church, that is obnoxious to Laughter, is our Tergiversation and Circumvolation with every Wind of Doctrine, as it must be confess'd that we can stand fast to no Point long.1722, Thomas Woolston, Works, page 67
   • Faber was of the true stamp to experience the extreme of agony and the extreme of bliss, to torture himself with suspicions, to thrust the spikes of doubt into his sinews and muscles, to plunge into the mysterious Gehenna of jealousy, and through this circumvolation of torture to scale the citadel...1864, James Augustus Saint John, Weighed in the Balance, page 168