small circle

American  

noun

1. a circle on a sphere, the plane of which does not pass through the center of the sphere.

---

small circle British  

noun

1. a circular section of a sphere that does not contain the centre of the sphere Compare great circle

---

Etymology

Origin of small circle

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

“You watch these episodes dozens and dozens of times over and over again. And the strange thing about this show is that a very small group of people had seen the episodes, a really small circle, then suddenly you’re just blasting it out to millions of people all at the same time.”

From Los Angeles Times

As time passes and several grow less independent—exiled to assisted-living facilities outside the city—their small circle starts to break apart.

From The Wall Street Journal

That exactly twenty years after Howie Rubin became a scandalous household name for losing $250 million, another mortgage bond trader named Howie, inside Morgan Stanley, would lose $9 billion on a single mortgage trade, and remain essentially unknown, without anyone beyond a small circle inside Morgan Stanley ever hearing about what he’d done, or why.

From Literature

People close to Puech say Freymond surrounded him with a small circle of associates, including a lawyer named François Besse.

From The Wall Street Journal

As someone who historically had a small circle and struggled to make friends as an adult, Dekermenjian said, “I didn’t realize there’s this part of me that’s wanted this all along.”

From Los Angeles Times