circumscribe
verb (used with object)
to draw a line around; encircle.
circumscribed
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past participleof circumscribe.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
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past tense formof circumscribe.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
circumscribeverb (used with object)to draw a line around; encircle.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The authors of the study estimated that their circumscribed findings extrapolated countywide could represent up to $114 million in losses over a month of sustained enforcement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Yet the pardon power is circumscribed: It applies only to criminal “offenses,” excluding impeachments.
From Slate ● May 26, 2026
Early Renaissance sculptors went to school on works like this, learning from them how to tell a complex story on a flat surface within a circumscribed area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
As per the country's own observations, the fund had limited ability to do something about the loan, and was "circumscribed by procedural and technical formalities".
From BBC ● May 14, 2025
Unlike in classical Athens, however, the power of the city’s civil servants was entirely circumscribed by the king’s, preserving only the outward form, not the substance, of self-government.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
