encircle

From en- +‎ circle.

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

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (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.

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

• encirclement

• licencer