circumscription
(sɜːkəmˈskrɪpʃən)
[ad. L. circumscrīptiōn-em n. of action, f. circumscrībĕre to circumscribe. Cf. F. circonscription.]
1. The action of circumscribing, or fact of being circumscribed; the marking out of limits (of territory, etc.); bounding, limitation, restriction, restraint; the having well-defined limits.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. ii. 27, I would not my vnhoused free condition Put into Circumscription and Confine. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. & Gard. Cyrus 36 He found no circumscription to the eye of his ambition. 1660 Milton Free Commw. (1851) 440 No injurious Alteration or Circumscription of Mens Lands. 1661 Morgan Sph. Gentry iv. viii. 101 His Majesties rare Moderation in bearing..the circumscription of his person. 1773 Johnson in Boswell (1816) II. 249 A district, through which each minister was required to extend his care, was, by that circumscription, constituted a parish. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. §2. 32 The franchise is founded on a combination of property and territorial circumscription. |
b. Encompassing (cf. circumscribe 1).
| 1858 Gladstone Homer I. 228 The circumscription of the known seas by the great river Ocean. |
2. The fact or quality of being confined to definite limits in space, as a property of matter. (Common in 16–17th c.; now rare or Obs.).
| 1550 Cranmer Defence 52 b, If the nature of the Godhead were a body, it must needes bee in a place, and have quantitee, greatnes, and circumscription. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. 123 Christ is not conteined there by way of circumscription nor after a bodily maner. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. (1839) 676 The circumscription of a thing, is nothing else but the determination, or defining of its place. 1862 Simon Dorner's Pers. Christ ii. II. 200 The circumscription of the humanity of Christ, its presence in one place. |
3. concr. Boundary, outline, periphery.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 9 The circumscription of this..bone Occiput. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. Introd., A part is properly..that which hath a proper circumscription of its own. 1815 T. Forster Res. Atmosph. Phenom. ii. 78 [A cloud] having a rounded circumscription. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 481 The circumscription of the nose. 1835 Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) I. 261 The line representing its [the blade's] two edges [is called] the margin or circumscription. |
4. A thing that circumscribes or encloses; a material surrounding or investment.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man viii. 107 Where it [‘spinall marey’] first entreth into the Vertebres..it is endewed with no circumscription. 1645 Milton Tetrach. (1851) 220 May hoppe over them more easily then over those Romulean circumscriptions. 1861 A. Beresford-Hope Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. ii. 46 Convolutions formed out of the substance which composed the material circumscription [of the window]. |
5. A circumscribed space or place; a district or region of defined limits.
| 1831 Q. Rev. XLV. 432 These..will govern in the territorial circumscription that they embrace. 1846 Grote Greece (1862) I. xvi. 287 Town, village, or known circumscription of territory. 1877 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. ii. 194 The diocese or ecclesiastical circumscription. |
6. fig. The laying down of the limits of meaning; definition, description. In quot. 1553 perh. ‘a compendious statement’ (L. circumscriptio). arch.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. (1580) 166 What very fortitude is, hee more playnely declareth afterward, in a more larger circumscription. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 111 b, Circumscripcion is a briefe declaryng of a thyng, as thus, he is free that is subject to no evil. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 500 Drunkennesse..hath its circumscription; though some will give none but their own Fancies Test to judge one drunk by. 1832 Austin Jurispr. (1879) II. xlviii. 322 Such a power or liberty of using or disposing of the subject as is not capable of exact circumscription. |
7. Geom. The act of circumscribing one figure about another; see circumscribe 3.
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid iv. Introd. 110 This fourth booke intreateth of the..circumscription of rectiline figures. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 9/1. 1840 Lardner Geom. vii. (heading), Of inscription and circumscription of figures. |
8. An inscription around something, e.g. a coin, a seal, etc. (cf. circumscribe 4).
| 1569 Jewel Sedit. Bull (1570) 5 Paul is placed on the left side with his Sword..his circumscription..‘Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles’. c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §294 (1810) 304 The coin..the circumscription being somewhat obscure. 1874 Fraser in 4th Rep. Comm. Hist. MSS. 493/2 The other side of the seal is entire..and the circumscription in letters beautifully engraved, ‘Sigillum Secreti’. |
¶ tr. L. circumscriptio deceit, defrauding.
| 1875 Poste Gaius i. (ed. 2) 149 The circumscription of a minor..rendered the person convicted thereof infamis. |