circumambulate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
-
to walk around (something)
-
(intr) to avoid the point
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of circumambulate
First recorded in 1650–60, circumambulate is from the Late Latin word circumambulātus (past participle of circumambulāre ). See circum-, ambulate
Vocabulary lists containing circumambulate
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.
See Examples For:
They pack into the Grand Mosque in Mecca to circumambulate the Kaaba.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 21, 2023
And Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, without social distancing for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 23, 2021
Rangarajan is addressing the morning’s temple goers who, like a school of fish, circumambulate the temple’s inner sanctum chanting the Hindu deity Balaji’s name in vague unison.
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2017
At any time of the day, hundreds of people circumambulate the stupa, chanting mantras, kneading their mala beads and twirling prayer wheels.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2012
One should always go round the sun to meet the moon in France, that is to say, one should ever circumambulate, never make straight for the lodestar ahead.
From In the Heart of the Vosges And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" by Matilda Betham-Edwards
He’s deep into Shambhala Buddhism and has circumambulated Mount Kailash in Tibet.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 15, 2017
I may well have promenaded, pedestrianized, peregrinated, ambulated, perambulated, circumambulated, hoofed, and locomoted ...
From Time Magazine Archive
It was being circumambulated by thousands upon thousands of praying pilgrims, both sexes, and every size, shape, color, and race in the world.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Three separate times, after that, I visited the Great Mosque and circumambulated the Ka’ba.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Hip to hip, arms interwoven to hold hands, Desdemona and Lefty circumambulated the captain, once, twice, and then again, spinning the cocoon of their life together.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Brooklyn-based photographer Bryan Thomas has spent much of the past two years in his native Florida, circumambulating the coast and taking pictures of the sea and the sky and the people.
From The New Yorker ● May 19, 2017
We’ve already done a lot of circumambulating, negotiating temples and sacred objects in a clockwise direction.
From Washington Post
Yegey was for circumambulating, but Obsle went to the point.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Thus worship the lingam with the prescribed offerings, invocations, prayers and honours, and by circumambulating it, and by prostrating thyself before Shiva, represented under this symbol.”
From Phallic Miscellanies Facts and Phases of Ancient and Modern Sex Worship, as Illustrated Chiefly in the Religions of India by Hargrave Jennings
Druids also made a "hedge," the airbe druad, round an army, perhaps circumambulating it and saying spells so that the attacking force might not break through.
From The Religion of the Ancient Celts by J. A. MacCulloch
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.
