ambit
[am-bit]
- circumference; circuit.
- boundary; limit.
- a sphere of operation or influence; range; scope: the ambit of such an action.
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Origin of ambit
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin ambitus a going around, equivalent to amb- ambi- + itus a going (i- (stem of īre to go) + -tus suffix of v. action)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ambit
Contemporary Examples
They have come within the ambit of law enforcement by violating some law: drunk driving for example.
This approach easily sweeps Assange and WikiLeaks into its ambit.
Whether they are in the ambit covered by Madoff's alleged help to the SEC is not publicly known.
Historical Examples
I saw for the first time an horizon as an arc suggesting how wide is our ambit.
The Sea and the JungleH. M. Tomlinson
But he determined the key to the solution lay within that ambit.
If Winter ComesA.S.M. Hutchinson
The purpose was manifestly to make the ambit of review under the Act at least as wide as at common law.
Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft DisasterSir Owen Woodhouse, R. B. Cooke, Ivor L. M. Richardson, Duncan Wallace McMullin, and Sir Edward Somers
Is there jurisdiction in the Courts to review in such a context as this taking into account the ambit of ss.
Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft DisasterSir Owen Woodhouse, R. B. Cooke, Ivor L. M. Richardson, Duncan Wallace McMullin, and Sir Edward Somers
This simile to Nonconformity also holds good a little when we seek to ascertain the ambit of Richardson's popularity.
Res JudicatAugustine Birrell
ambit
- scope or extent
- limits, boundary, or circumference
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin ambitus a going round, from ambīre to go round, from ambi- + īre to go
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for ambit
n.
late 14c., "space surrounding a building or town; precinct;" 1590s, "a circuit," from Latin ambitus "a going round," past participle of ambire "to go round, to go about" (see ambient).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper