conscribe, v.
(kənˈskraɪb)
[ad. L. conscrībĕre to enter in a list, enroll, draw up, prescribe, f. con- together + scrībĕre to write; in sense 4 corresponding to conscription 4.]
† 1. trans. To enroll, levy (an army); to enlist (a soldier). Obs.
| 1548 Hall Chron. (1809) 281 When this armie..was conscribed and come together to Harflete. Ibid. 314 To conscribe and set furthe a new armie. 1660 G. Fleming Stemma Sacrum 28 People..of the meanest condition, and mercinary only and conscribed by others. |
† 2. To enroll as a Roman senator. Obs. rare.
| 1656 J. Harrington Oceana (1700) 136 If a Plebeian happen'd to be conscrib'd he and his Posterity became Patricians. |
† 3. To circumscribe, to limit. Obs.
| 1613 Heywood Silver Age v. Wks. 1874 III. 162 The Fates, by whom your powers are all conscribed, Pronounce this doom. 1622 Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 105 A Mart, Fair or Market..although they be conscribed to place and circuit. 1704 Harris Lex. Techn., Conscribed, the same with Circumscribed. |
4. To enlist for the army by conscription, q.v.; to enlist compulsorily. Also transf.
| 1820 Edin. Rev. XXXIV. 418 Government..cannot conscribe readers. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cviii. 24 ‘We will not be conscribed, to be shot like dogs’—was what I heard from French youth. 1887 Spectator 18 June 818/2 Ghilzaies forcibly conscribed by the Ameer. |
Hence conˈscribed ppl. a.
| 1654 R. Codrington tr. Hist. Ivstine 89 With this conscribed Army composed of the outcasts of man. |