UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does under the circumstances mean? 

• UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES (adverb)
  The adverb UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES has 1 sense:

1. because of prevailing conditions

  Familiarity information: UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Because of prevailing conditions

Context example:

under the circumstances I cannot buy the house

 Context examples 

My best, you may be sure, which wasn’t much under the circumstances.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"Very well," I said shortly; "under the circumstances, quite as well as if I were either your real sister, or a man and a clergyman like yourself."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Well, I think that under the circumstances we may enter without an invitation.”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What he has been saying was, under the circumstances, of absorbing interest.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Of course, he did not realize that it was I who was knocking, but none the less his conduct was very uncourteous, and, indeed, under the circumstances rather suspicious.”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But this was his first editor, and under the circumstances he did not desire to scare him too abruptly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I soon found out that Mrs. Gummidge did not always make herself so agreeable as she might have been expected to do, under the circumstances of her residence with Mr. Peggotty.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Under the circumstances, what could Jo do but greet him civilly, and invite him in?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It seemed a poor return for all the courtesy which we encountered that we should deceive our hosts and benefactors, but under the circumstances we had really no alternative, and I hereby tell them that they will only waste their time and their money if they attempt to follow upon our traces.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Had he appeared surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)