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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To surround (an enemy, for example); enclose or entrap.
  2. v. To go around; bypass: circumvented the city.
  3. v. To avoid or get around by artful maneuvering: She planned a way to circumvent all the bureaucratic red tape.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To gain advantage over by artfulness, stratagem, or deception; defeat or get the better of by cunning; get around; outwit; overreach: as, to circumvent one's enemies.
  2. Synonyms See cheat.

Wiktionary

  1. v. to avoid or get around something; to bypass
  2. v. to surround or besiege
  3. v. to outwit or outsmart

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To gain advantage over by arts, stratagem, or deception; to decieve; to delude; to get around.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)
  2. v. beat through cleverness and wit
  3. v. surround so as to force to give up

Etymologies

  1. Middle English circumventen, from Latin circumvenīre, circumvent- : circum-, circum- + venīre, to go, come; see gwā- in Indo-European roots.

Examples

  • “And they want to kind of circumvent the will of our grassroots delegates that nominated Congressman Castle to be our endorsed candidate.”

    NPR: Tea Party Sets Sights On Delaware

  • “This latest gambit, he argued, was simply an attempt to "circumvent" the law.”

    Newsweek: Actual Innocence

  • “A fine argument if there actually is a legal immigration procedure for many of those who 'circumvent' it; Which there isn't.”

    Still More on Immigration, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

  • “He posits that "the Justices were largely influenced by their attitudes on two issues: first, the degree to which Congress may 'circumvent' the Treason Clause by proscribing conduct covered by treason under a different heading and without the same procedural safeguards; and second, the degree to which the Framers intended treason prosecutions to be exceedingly rare and difficult.”

    Crane on Cramer v. United States

  • “JOE WYNN, VETERANS ENTERPRISE TRAINING & SERVICES: The employers don't continue to keep that position active, and so does find a way to kind of circumvent the law.”

    CNN Transcript Sep 5, 2009

  • “JOE WYNN, VETERANS ENTERPRISE TRAINING & SERVICES: The employers don't continue to keep that position active and so, thus, find a way to kind of circumvent the law.”

    CNN Transcript Aug 31, 2009

  • “This new initiative is an attempt to "circumvent" international justice, said Mahjoub Hussain, spokesman for another rebel group, the”

    ANC Daily News Briefing

  • “Jews don't "circumvent" stuff like "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me," they just willfully reject it.”

    7 new sins.

  • “But, no, she is not going to kind of circumvent that by making some sort of back deal.”

    CNN Transcript Jun 2, 2008

  • “It seems to me that the president didn't simply "circumvent" the law, as you stated, but actually broke it.”

    Newsweek: Mail Call

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Comments

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  • slumry to get around Jun 19, 2007

  • oroboros An opening in the front of boxer shorts. --Mensa word list winner 2006 Mar 2, 2007

‘circumvent’ has been looked up 2742 times, loved by 2 people, added to 47 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 19.