Library / English Dictionary

CIRCUMVENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)

Example:

he evaded the questions skillfully

Synonyms:

circumvent; dodge; duck; elude; evade; fudge; hedge; parry; put off; sidestep; skirt

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "circumvent" is one way to...):

avoid (stay clear from; keep away from; keep out of the way of someone or something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "circumvent"):

beg (dodge, avoid answering, or take for granted)

quibble (evade the truth of a point or question by raising irrelevant objections)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

circumvention (the act of evading by going around)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Beat through cleverness and wit

Example:

She outfoxed her competitors

Synonyms:

beat; circumvent; outfox; outsmart; outwit; overreach

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "circumvent" is one way to...):

exceed; outdo; outgo; outmatch; outperform; outstrip; surmount; surpass (be or do something to a greater degree)

Verb group:

beat; beat out; crush; shell; trounce; vanquish (come out better in a competition, race, or conflict)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Surround so as to force to give up

Example:

The Turks besieged Vienna

Synonyms:

beleaguer; besiege; circumvent; hem in; surround

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "circumvent" is one way to...):

assail; attack (launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "circumvent"):

blockade; seal off (impose a blockade on)

ebb (hem in fish with stakes and nets so as to prevent them from going back into the sea with the ebb)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

You may guess, therefore, that the news he heard from his friend could not be very agreeable, and you may guess what it produced; the resolution of coming back to Bath as soon as possible, and of fixing himself here for a time, with the view of renewing his former acquaintance, and recovering such a footing in the family as might give him the means of ascertaining the degree of his danger, and of circumventing the lady if he found it material.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Doxifluridine, designed to circumvent the rapid degradation of 5-FU by dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase in the gut wall, is converted into 5-FU in the presence of pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase. 5-FU interferes with DNA synthesis and subsequent cell division by reducing normal thymidine production and interferes with RNA transcription by competing with uridine triphosphate for incorporation into the RNA strand.

(Doxifluridine, NCI Thesaurus)