encircle
verb (used with object)
to form a circle around; surround; encompass.
was encircling
-
past progressiveof encircle.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
Even when the Red Army was encircling the German Sixth Army outside Stalingrad in late 1942, the Füehrer refused permission for his troops to stage a breakout.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2022
We continued bemoaning our fate, conscious suddenly of a publicist who, we feared, was encircling us the way a hyena might a celebrity-bothering impala that he wanted to rip limb from limb.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2011
Cordell Hull in Washington growled that Japan was encircling herself farther, the farther she strayed from where she belonged.
From Time Magazine Archive
The swordfish was encircling the boat with line.
From Time Magazine Archive
Magnetism was encircling the earth with its currents long before the invention of the mariner's compass which reveals them to us.
From Mysterious Psychic Forces An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants by Camille Flammarion
