circumscribe

From Latin circumscrībō, from circum (“around”) + scrībō (“write”). By surface analysis, circum- +‎ scribe.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜː.kəm.skɹaɪb/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝ.kəm.skɹaɪb/

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• Rhymes: -aɪb

circumscribe (third-person singular simple present circumscribes, present participle circumscribing, simple past and past participle circumscribed)

1. To draw a line around; to encircle.
2. To limit narrowly; to restrict.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Asking for an Invitation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 29:

     "Well, I promise you to circumscribe her conquests as much as possible by extending my own," returned Henrietta. "It will be an easy task; for Miss Churchill does not do 'the honours of her eyes.' I often tell her her beauty is quite wasted upon her."

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].

3. (geometry) To draw the smallest circle or higher-dimensional sphere that has (a polyhedron, polygon, etc.) in its interior.

• circumscribed
• circumscript
• circumscription

circumscrībe

1. second-person singular present active imperative of circumscrībō