circumnavigate
/səːkəmˈnavɪɡeɪt
/verb [with object]
1Sail or travel all the way around (something, especially the world): he undertook to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days or less...
- In 1519 Magellan set sail from here to circumnavigate the globe.
- He is setting sail again to circumnavigate the globe, with all the obvious risks and dangers that entails.
- Ellen MacArthur's bid to circumnavigate the globe in record time received a cruel setback when her mast was damaged.
1.1Go around or avoid (an obstacle): he helped her to circumnavigate a frozen puddle...
- The path initially heads south west, but it immediately swings back round to neatly circumnavigate a boggy section.
- Off I went, circumnavigating the championship golf course.
- Tourists were unlikely to be wooed away from the sightseeing Meccas of Sydney and Queensland for the sake of circumnavigating a renovated caravan park in a Crazy Copter.
1.2Avoid dealing with (something difficult or unpleasant): they circumnavigated the issue...
- Schiller, of course, circumnavigated this difficulty by simply inventing a meeting.
- I have a cunning plan to circumnavigate this problem.
- While the first three films found fair to ingenious methods of circumnavigating this problem, the fourth is so unconcerned with feasibility that it resorts to woefully convenient schemes for recording the poltergeist's antics.
Derivatives
circumnavigator
/ noun ...- James Cook was a circumnavigator and is credited with discovering many faraway places.
- Our great circumnavigator is known in Chile as a pirate and a murderer.
- Part of the premises was once occupied by Agnes Harker, sister of famous circumnavigator Captain Cook.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin circumnavigare 'to sail round' + -ate3.