CIRCUMSCRIBE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Circumscribe

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/sˌərkəmskrˈaɪb/ Listen

Circumscribe

verb

(past & past part. circumscribed; pres. part. circumscribing)

Draw a line around.

Restrict or confine,. Synonyms: confine, limit.

To draw a geometric figure around another figure so that the two are in contact but do not intersect.

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Etymology of 'Circumscribe'

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"Circumscribe" Quotes from Famous Books

... oppression exercised in defiance of acknowledged rights and of the accepted principles of equity—a lamentable period, in which every bloody contest originated in the determination of the one party to circumscribe or destroy, and of the other to maintain in its integrity the fundamental basis of toleration laid down ...

— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

... and perceives their relative worth; which is as much as to say that it expresses a new attitude of will in the presence of a world better understood and turned to some purpose. The limits of reflection mark those of concerted and rational action; they circumscribe the field of cumulative experience, or, what is the same ...

— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... the representative of the State a powerful sovereign, and at the same time elective, is, in my opinion, to entertain two incompatible designs. To reduce hereditary royalty to the condition of an elective authority, the only means that I am acquainted with are to circumscribe its sphere of action beforehand, gradually to diminish its prerogatives, and to accustom the people to live without its protection. Nothing, however, is further from the designs of the republicans of Europe than this course: as many of ...

— Democracy In America, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville

... political opponents, and thus created vacancies, in order that he might fill them with his own friends. I think the number of removals and appointments is said to be two thousand. While the administration and its friends have been attempting to circumscribe and to decry the powers belonging to other branches, it has thus seized into its own hands a patronage most pernicious and corrupting, an authority over men's means of living most tyrannical and odious, and a power to punish free men ...

— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... of permissiveness have led to practices that circumscribe and hamper life. Their declared objective is the liberation and enlargement of human life and well being. Where they have been tested out they have proved themselves to be obstructive and destructive rather than ...

— Civilization and Beyond - Learning From History • Scott Nearing

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