| 1. | Logic.
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| 2. | a situation in which effort to solve a given problem results in aggravation of the problem or the creation of a worse problem: a vicious circle where the more I give them, the more they expect. |
| vicious circle n.
[Translation of New Latin circulus vitiōsus, circular argument : Medieval Latin circulus, circular argument + Latin vitiōsus, flawed, faulty.] |
A series of reactions that compound an initial unfortunate occurrence or situation: “A person who is overweight is likely to feel frustrated and to deal with this frustration by eating more; it's a vicious circle.”
vicious circle vi·cious circle (vĭsh'əs)
n.
A condition in which a disorder or disease gives rise to another that subsequently affects the first.
vicious circle
A series of events in which each problem creates another and worsens the original one. For example, The fatter I get, the unhappier I am, so I eat to cheer myself up, which makes me fatter yet
it's a vicious circle. This expression comes from the French cercle vicieux, which in philosophy means "a circular proof"that is, the proof of one statement depends on a second statement, whose proof in turn depends on the first. One writer suggests that the English meaning of "vicious" helped the expression acquire its more pejorative present sense, used since 1839.