performance given by a traveling company of acrobats clowns and trained animals; "the children always love to go to the circus"
a frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance suggestive of a large public entertainment; "it was so funny it was a circus"; "the whole occasion had a carnival atmosphere"
a genus of haws comprising the harriers
an arena consisting of an oval or circular area enclosed by tiers of seats and usually covered by a tent; "they used the elephants to help put up the circus"
(antiquity) an open-air stadium for chariot races and gladiatorial games
a travelling company of entertainers; including trained animals; "he ran away from home to join the circus"
a ceremonial staff carried as a symbol of office or authority
spice made from the dried fleshy covering of the nutmeg seed
(trademark) a liquid that temporarily disables a person; prepared as an aerosol and sprayed in the face, it irritates the eyes and causes dizziness and immobilization
(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
a person's social heritage: previous experience or training; "he is a lawyer with a sports background"
information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem; "the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"
the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground; "he posed her against a background of rolling hills"
relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation; "when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured; "they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals"
understate the importance or quality of; "he played down his royal ancestry"
an imaginary line around the Earth forming the great circle that is equidistant from the north and south poles; "the equator is the boundary between the northern and southern hemispheres"
a circle dividing a sphere or other surface into two usually equal and symmetrical parts
a raised horizontal surface; "the speaker mounted the platform"
any military structure or vehicle bearing weapons
the combination of a particular computer and a particular operating system
a document stating the aims and principles of a political party; "their candidate simply ignored the party platform"; "they won the election even though they offered no positive program"
the size of something as given by the distance around it
the length of the closed curve of a circle
the boundary line encompassing an area or object; "he had walked the full circumference of his land"; "a danger to all races over the whole circumference of the globe"
graphic art consisting of the graphic or photographic representation of a visual percept; "he painted scenes from everyday life"; "figure 2 shows photographic and schematic views of the equipment"
a consecutive series of pictures that constitutes a unit of action in a film
a subdivision of an act of a play; "the first act has three scenes"
an incident (real or imaginary); "their parting was a sad scene"
the place where some action occurs; "the police returned to the scene of the crime"