Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a long and winding route.

1680		Dryden Spanish Fryar V ii: I shall fetch him back with a circumbendibus, I warrant him.
1768		Carlisle in Jesse George Selwyn (1843) II 317: I can assure you it grieved me that anything of yours should make such a circumbendibus before it came to my hands.
1774		J. O’Keeffe Tony Lumpkin in Town (1780) 18: Could you not say at once that your were a fidler [sic], and not come round to it with such a circumbendibus.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue .
1797		T. Morton A Cure for the Heart Ache in Inchbold (1808) XXV 44: The road had a bit of a circumbendibus; – hate corners, – so I jumped the hedge.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome II 120: We rule not Rhymes—our Rhymes rule us, Nor by a circumbendibus To gain our Goal we must neglect, When Rhymes wont let us march direct.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1866		Ipswich Jrnl 13 Jan. 3/6: [He] shot out of his saddle in [...] a regular Jim Crow sort of cir-cum-bend-i-bus in the air.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 July 14/3: ‘Where’s Guam?’ I asked. ‘Anywhar and nowhar,’ he said. ‘But I don’t mind telling you it means London by circumbendibus.’ ‘Just my dart,’ said I, and booked at the agents.

2. a long and winding story.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue .
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 51: Circumbendibus — going to a point by a roundabout way, whether that be an argumentative point, or one upon the highway.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 224: I tell you without any circumbendibus what the people say.
1851		R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 231: And now, after this wide hare-hunting circumbendibus, [...] we again break off at the major’s invitation to Tom Hall.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1890		N&Q Ser. 7 IX 29 Mar. n.p.: No choice but to deliver himself of a malediction with a circumbendibus [F&H].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 17: Circumbendibus, a long-winded story.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 78/1: Circumbendibus (Peoples’). Evasion – adopted probably from some author playing with Latin formation – based on circumlocution. ‘He allowed the accusation by a circumbendibus.’.

3. (US) a bow.

1822

‘XYZ’ Knickerbocker Tour of N.Y. State (1968) 108: Stood in the bow of the [canal] boat, and were obliged to make to each of them a ‘circumbendibus’ of the body, in other words an obeisance, as if we wished to pay salute to each of these bridges.