circled

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of circle.

   The hawk circled lazily above the open field.

   The editor circled every spelling mistake in red.

   Note

   One -ed form does double duty: the simple past (the hawk circled) and, after have or had, the past participle (the hawk has circled). Circle is both transitive and intransitive, but the participle builds passives only from its transitive uses: a town circled by hills, a word circled in red. That last pattern is where the "ringed" adjective comes from.

2. 2
   adjective

   Marked with a circle or ellipse drawn around it; ringed.

   The proofreader handed back a draft full of circled typos.

   Every circled date on the calendar marked a deadline.

   Similarringed, marked, highlighted

3. 3
   adjective

   Having the shape of a circle; round.

   Monthly changes in her circled orb.

   c. 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”

   Similarround, circular

   Note

   The shape sense has a poetic pedigree. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare writes of the moon's "monthly changes in her circled orb," setting its steady roundness against its changing face. Here circled names the form a thing has rather than a mark drawn around it, and that difference separates it from the "ringed" meaning.

4. 4
   adjective

   Having a certain number or type of circles.

   A triple-circled crest is framed by three concentric rings.

   These antique coins are richly circled, each bearing several engraved rings.

   Similarringed

   Note

   A combining adjective, seldom found alone. It attaches to a number or a describing word in front of it, as in a five-circled logo, and the pair is hyphenated before a noun. The first element does the real work, counting the rings or saying what kind they are, so the meaning lives in the compound rather than in circled by itself.

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