Other forms: encircled, encircling, encircles
To encircle is to surround an enemy completely. Encircle the town, encircled by the river, encircle the position.
In war an encirclement is usually decisive, because a surrounded force loses its supply and its line of retreat at once — the fighting after that is about surrender terms. The word is also used gently, of arms and of walls. Note the en- prefix meaning to put into.
1verbencircleTo surround completely.
“A low stone wall encircles the old church and its graveyard.”
encircle is a surrounding.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker- (turn)
Old French
cercle
Middle English
circle
English
circle
English, today
encircle
From en- + circle. circle comes from Middle English circle, from Old French cercle. From Middle English circle, cercle, from Old French cercle and Latin circulus, diminutive of Latin circus (“circle, circus”), from Ancient Greek κίρκος (“circle, ring”), related to Old English hring (“ring”). Compare also Old English ċircul (“circle, zodiac”), which came from the same Latin source. by surface analysis, circ(us) + -(u)le.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA