Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move in or flow through a circle or circuit.
  • intransitive verb To move around, as from person to person or place to place.
  • intransitive verb To move about or flow freely, as air.
  • intransitive verb To spread widely among persons or places; disseminate.
  • intransitive verb To cause to move about or be distributed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To travel round; make a circuit of.
  • To cause to pass from place to place or from person to person; spread; disseminate: as, to circulate, a report; to circulate bills of credit.
  • To move in a circle or circuit; move or pass through a circuit back to the starting-point: as, the blood circulates in the body; the bottle circulated about the table.
  • To be diffused or distributed; pass from place to place, from person to person, or from hand to hand: as, air circulates in a building; money circulates in the country; the report circulated throughout the city.
  • noun A circulating decimal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cause to pass from place to place, or from person to person; to spread.
  • transitive verb See under Pump.
  • intransitive verb To move in a circle or circuitously; to move round and return to the same point.
  • intransitive verb To pass from place to place, from person to person, or from hand to hand; to be diffused
  • intransitive verb See Decimal.
  • intransitive verb a library whose books are loaned to the public, usually at certain fixed rates.
  • intransitive verb See Medium.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive to move in circles or through a circuit
  • verb transitive to cause (a person or thing) to move in circles or through a circuit
  • verb to move from person to person, as at a party
  • verb to spread or disseminate
  • verb to become widely known

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb move in circles
  • verb become widely known and passed on
  • verb move through a space, circuit or system, returning to the starting point
  • verb cause to move around
  • verb move around freely
  • verb cause to move in a circuit or system
  • verb cause to become widely known
  • verb cause be distributed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English circulat, continuously distilled, from Latin circulātus, past participle of circulāre, to make circular, from circulus, circle; see circle.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin circulatus, past participle of circulare ("make circular, encircle"), a later collateral form of circulari ("form a circle (of men) around one's self"), from circulus ("a circle")

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Examples

  • While Johnson was less than serious about wanting to bring Sergio Aragonés' barbarian to theaters, he told MTV he'd be proud to have his name circulate in connection with the character.

    Rian Johnson And ‘Groo The Wanderer’: A Match Made In Some Alternate Future? 2008

  • Over the last few weeks a new theme has started to circulate, which is, in a sense, much more potent and in any case more interesting.

    Four Months Later 1977

  • Leaving aside Fevola for the moment, can we not also drag into this sorry mess all of the other players who helped "circulate" the photo and who didn't say a peep about it?

    Wait a second, who is the villain in this piece? girliejones 2010

  • Leaving aside Fevola for the moment, can we not also drag into this sorry mess all of the other players who helped "circulate" the photo and who didn't say a peep about it?

    Wait a second, who is the villain in this piece? girliejones 2010

  • He says "circulate," without saying anything about the audience for that circulation, as Greg points out.

    Obama Camp Hits Hillary Over Drudge Story 2009

  • Judging by the tone at DKos and elsewhere, Obama volunteers are awfully quick to voice and "circulate" insults about Clinton.

    Obama Camp Hits Hillary Over Drudge Story 2009

  • Note how the WMO standard requires the air temperature observation to be measured OUTSIDE the forest and where the air can freely circulate, meaning where the tropospheric air mass can freely circulate without obstruction by any form of vegetation.

    Central Park: Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? « Climate Audit 2007

  • And I write a lot about that in the book, and I write also about our trade craft training, which is -- in a lot of ways, it's training you how to have social skills, because you're learning to kind of circulate the diplomatic cocktail circuit and use that as a venue to find potential targets.

    CNN Transcript Jan 24, 2005 2005

  • Come now: certainly we can agree that articles from the Western press do not "circulate" in East Berlin — not among normal East Germans at any rate.

    The Man Who Came in from the Cold Kelman, Steven 1973

  • The law says you must pay five per cent. duty on entering the country, or _at the discretion of the authorities_, bona-fide tourists will be given a temporary permit to "circulate" free.

    The Automobilist Abroad

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