circumvent

• circumvene

Learned borrowing from Latin circumveniō.

• IPA^(key): /səːkəmˈvɛnt/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɛnt

circumvent (third-person singular simple present circumvents, present participle circumventing, simple past and past participle circumvented)

1. (transitive) to avoid or get around something; to bypass
   • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 265:

     The line turns a sharp right-angle to the north to circumvent the town, and then plunges straight into the 1 in 50, which lasts for nearly 20 miles with few intermissions, and some pitches of 1 in 40.

2. (transitive) to surround or besiege
3. (transitive) to outwit or outsmart
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 279–280:

     We are mortified by not being thought worthy of trust; and there is also a feeling of small triumph in circumventing those who doubt either our inclination or our power of service.