circus

A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent.

Noun

A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent.
- The circus will be in town next week.
A round open space in a town or city where multiple streets meet.
- Oxford Circus in London is at the north end of Regent Street.
A spectacle; a noisy fuss; a chaotic and/or crowded place.
- The village would be turned into a circus over this. He groaned, it was just the sort of case the media had a field day over. He had to get the whole thing sorted fast before anyone got wind of it. - 2009, Christine...
An undertaking or arrangement.
- "Right you are; I'll put him wise," undertook Nickle briskly. "After all, it's entirely your circus. Shall we stay here and—" - 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
In the ancient Roman Empire, a building for chariot racing.
A code name for bomber attacks with fighter escorts in the day time. The attacks were against short-range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.
Circuit; space; enclosure.
- The narrow circus of my dungeon wall. - 1817, Lord Byron, The Lament of Tasso:

Origin

From Middle English circus, circo, from Latin circus (“ring, circle”), from Ancient Greek κρίκος (kríkos), κίρκος (kírkos, “ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”). Doublet of cirque. Cognate with Old English hring (whence English ring) and Old English hringsetl (“circus”, literally “ring-seat”).