Circumvent

//səːkəmˈvɛnt// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    to avoid or get around something; to bypass transitive

    "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. 2
    avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues) wordnet
  3. 3
    to surround or besiege transitive
  4. 4
    beat through cleverness and wit wordnet
  5. 5
    to outwit or outsmart transitive

    "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."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    surround so as to force to give up wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
outwitavoidbafflebalkbamboozlebeat

Example

More examples

"You'll have to find a trick to circumvent that issue."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin circumveniō.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.