circumscribe
Americanverb (used with object)
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to draw a line around; encircle.
to circumscribe a city on a map.
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to enclose within bounds; limit or confine, especially narrowly.
Her social activities are circumscribed by school regulations.
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to mark off; define; delimit.
to circumscribe the area of a science.
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Geometry.
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to draw (a figure) around another figure so as to touch as many points as possible.
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(of a figure) to enclose (another figure) in this manner.
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verb
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to restrict within limits
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to mark or set the bounds of
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to draw a geometric construction around (another construction) so that the two are in contact but do not intersect Compare inscribe
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to draw a line round
Other Word Forms
- circumscribable adjective
- circumscriber noun
- noncircumscribed adjective
- uncircumscribable adjective
- uncircumscribed adjective
Etymology
Origin of circumscribe
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin circumscrībere, equivalent to circum- circum- + scrībere to write
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.
Perhaps anyone could guess as much, but what a layman might never know without Stanford’s book is that our busy roads severely circumscribe the territory cougars can roam, leading to isolation and inbreeding.
From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2024
The charter provision does not appear to circumscribe that investigative authority for the department’s highest-ranking officer, the police chief.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 13, 2023
Basholli doesn’t revisit the Kosovo War in documentary detail or dig into its geopolitical backdrop; she also doesn’t illuminate the cultural and social practices that so harshly circumscribe the lives of these widows.
From New York Times • Nov. 4, 2021
And, in futuristic novels, oppressive regimes such as Margaret Atwood’s Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale severely circumscribe touch.
From The Guardian • May 22, 2020
The care and conscience are chiefly needed to limit and circumscribe a sudden image of a lady of irreproachable demeanour besieged by an unexpected dog.
From When Ghost Meets Ghost by De Morgan, William Frend
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
