circumscribe

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

• (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.
   • 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.

• circumscription

• -scribe

circumscrībe

1. second-person singular present active imperative of circumscrībō