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Vicious circle   /vˈɪʃəs sˈərkəl/   Listen
Vicious circle

noun
1.
One trouble leads to another that aggravates the first.  Synonym: vicious cycle.
2.
An argument that assumes that which is to be proved.





WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


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"Vicious circle" Quotes from Famous Books



... sufficient for the modifications of our ideas. The method of defining every term and constantly substituting the definition for the term defined looks well, but it is impracticable. For how can we escape from our vicious circle? Definitions would be all very well if we did not use words in the making of them. In spite of this I am convinced that even in our poor language we can make our meaning clear, not by always using words in ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
... drastic treatment, and in view of the hectic condition of the Stock Exchange and the "vicious circle" round which industrialism is now unhappily revolving I cannot but think that the temporary seclusion of the Ministry in a psychopathic ward might be fraught with economic consequences of the utmost importance. Even if they were only able to reduce ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, June 2, 1920 • Various
... ages, to repair the mischief inflicted by enemies," that accounts for "the fecundity of the codfish and other creatures. The more prolific it becomes, the more enemies it can feed; and the more they multiply, the more prolific it grows." A vicious circle indeed! Even "earthquakes, storms, droughts, deluges," are explained as due to a certain want of ...
— God and the World - A Survey of Thought • Arthur W. Robinson
... were so European already," returned the gentleman, "that a European landing among us would think he had got back to his starting-point in a sort of vicious circle. I am myself so thoroughly Europeanized in all my feelings and instincts that, do you know, Mrs. Makely, if I may ...
— Through the Eye of the Needle - A Romance • W. D. Howells
... vicious circle the advocates of a verbal inspiration of infallibility are necessarily imprisoned whenever they attempt to argue from the words of Scripture. They contend that one must believe their theory in order to be sure that any passage is absolutely true, and then they quote passages to prove their ...
— Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors • James Freeman Clarke


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