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
The depression may circumscribe his behavior, but don’t let it dictate yours.
From Washington Post • Aug. 21, 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
He would circumscribe and starve it, would favor compensated emancipation, and thus slowly and safely eradicate the evil from the nation.
From Lincoln, the Politician by Levy, T. Aaron
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.
