quadrature of the circle
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of quadrature of the circle
First recorded in 1590–1600
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nay, Aristotle would not have missed the quadrature of the circle, if only baleful conflicts had spared the books of the ancients, who knew all the methods of nature.
From The Love of Books The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury by Thomas, Ernest Chester
Old poets have recognized the quadrature of the circle as a well-known difficulty.
From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II by Smith, David Eugene
Profound philosophers have sometimes got very near to the discovery of the quadrature of the circle, perpetual motion, the transmutation of metals, the elixir of life, the crystallisation of carbon, the longitude.
From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various
He also wrote a work on the quadrature of the circle, Histoire des recherches sur la Quadrature du Cercle, which appeared in 1754.
From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I by Smith, David Eugene
A solution of the secular problem of the quadrature of the circle, government premium 1,000,000 pounds sterling.
From Ulysses by Joyce, James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
