▪ I. limit, n.
(ˈlɪmɪt)
Forms: 4–6 lymyte, 5–7 lymit(te, (5 -ytt), 6 limitt, li-, lymmet, limete, lymet(e, lemyet, 6–7 limite, 7 limmit, 6– limit.
[ad. F. limite, ad. L. līmit-em, līmes boundary.]
1. a. A boundary, frontier; an object serving to define a boundary, a landmark. Now only in narrower sense: A boundary or terminal point considered as confining or restricting; chiefly pl. bounds.
| c 1375 [see limit-stead in 5]. a 1400–50 Alexander 5069 Qua list þis lymit ouir-lende, lene to þe left hand. 1474 Caxton Chesse 144 Wyth in the lymytes and space of the royame. a 1529 Skelton Bk. 3 Foles Wks. (1568) X v b, Romulus..dyd Instytute lymittes or markes aboute the citie. 1550 Crowley Last Trump. 1482 Let it suffice the, to defende thy limites from inuasion. 1555 Eden Decades 83 That twoo such seas haue enuironed any lande with soo narowe lymittes. 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. def. iii, The endes or limites of a lyne, are pointes. 1587 Mirr. Mag., Forrex vi, T'inlarge the limetes of our kingdome wide. 1598 in Egerton Papers (Camden) 278 Chiveat Hill, being the lemyet of the Easte Marche. 1624 Wotton Elem. Archit. i. 24 When they haue chosen the Floore, or Plot, and laid out the Limits of the Worke, wee should first of all Digge Wels and Cesternes [etc.]. 1625 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. ix. (1635) 154 Hence is the Water enforced to enlarge his limits. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 201 Peter Heywood Esquire, one of the Kings Justices of the Peace within the limits of Westminster. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. v. §14 The Picts Wall..being a better Limit then Fortification, served rather to define then defend the Roman Empire. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 54 ¶2 To be confined within the Limits of a good handsome convenient Chamber. 1734 Berkeley Analyst Wks. III. 279 A point may be the limit of a line. 1823 F. Clissold Ascent Mt. Blanc 23 A circle of thin haze..marked dimly the limits between heaven and earth. |
† b. Contour (of the human form).
Obs. rare—1.
| 1636 W. Bettie Titana & Theseus B 3 He stept into a greene Arbour..where he first viewed each limit, or proportraiture of her body. Ibid. B 3 b, Theseus..thought it very strange, that Nature should endow..such comely limmits with such peruerse conditions. |
2. a. One of the fixed points between which the possible or permitted extent, amount, duration, range of action, or variation of anything is confined; a bound which may not be passed, or beyond which something ceases to be possible or allowable.
superior limit: the earlier of the two dates, or the higher of the two quantitative extremes, between which the possible range of something is confined; contrariwise
inferior limit.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 362 Þanne Goddis lawe myȝte freeli renne bi þe lymytis þat Crist haþ ordeyned. 1502 W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione iii. viii. 203 Nat ponderinge theyr exyle & pore lymytes of reson. 1579–80 North Plutarch, Theseus (1595) 2 They range..out of the boundes or limites of true apparance. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. iii. 8 Dispatch, the limit of your Liues is out. c 1600 ― Sonn. lxxxii, Finding thy worth a limmit past my praise. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxii. 121 For the limits of how farre such a Body shall represent the whole People. 1693 Congreve in Dryden's Juvenal (1697) 282 A Wise Man's Pow'r's the Limit of his Will. 1725 Watts Logic i. vi. §5 To leave Obscurities in the Sentence, by confining it within too narrow Limits. 1785 Reid Intell. Powers ii. xxi. 279 Nature has set limits to the pleasures of sense. 1818 Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. v. 505 For six hours..every part of the English army was engaged to the utmost limit of exertion. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. vi. 46 The limit at which the eye can appreciate differences of brightness. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 183 That subject is beyond our present limits. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 59 A crystal however has absolutely no limit to its growth. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 23 Would I shrink to learn my life-time's limit. 1894 Current Hist. (U.S.) IV. 355 Rear Admiral..B...retired from the active list of the navy under the limit-of-age law. 1895 J. A. Beet New Life in Christ i. vi. 45 All men have..transgressed limits marked out by an authority which none can question. 1895 Ld. Esher in Law Times Rep. LXXIII. 702/1 The section does not deal with salvage beyond the three miles limit. |
b. Math. In various applications. (
a) A finite quantity to which the sum of a converging series progressively approximates, but to which it cannot become equal in a finite number of terms. (
b) A fixed value to which a function can be made to approach continually, so as to differ from it by less than any assignable quantity, by making the independent variable approach some assigned value. (
c) Each of the two values of a variable, between which a definite integral is taken. (
d) The ultimate position of the point of intersection of two lines which, by their relative motion, are tending to coalescence.
Doctrine or Method of Limits: a term chiefly used to designate that mode of expounding the principles of the Differential and Integral Calculus, according to which the conception of ‘limits’ or ‘limiting values’ forms the basis of the system.
| [a 1727 Newton Opuscula i. 53 Quibus Terminis, sive Limitibus respondent semicirculi Limites, sive Termini.] 1753 in Chambers Cycl. Supp. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 78/2 Limit, in a restrained sense, is used by mathematicians for a determined quantity to which a variable one continually approaches; in which sense, the circle may be said to be the limit of its circumscribed and inscribed polygons. In algebra the term limit is applied to two quantities, one of which is greater and the other less than another quantity; and in this sense it is used in speaking of the limits of equations, whereby their solution is much facilitated. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 496/2 There are two conditions which must be fulfilled before A can be called the limit of P; first, P must never become equal to A; secondly P must be capable of being made as nearly equal to A as we please. 1842 De Morgan Diff. Calc. Pref., The idea of limits being absolutely necessary even to the proper conception of a convergent series. Ibid. Introd. Chap. 32 A case will be found in which the limit of an intersection is deduced. 1844 Hymers Integral Calc. 122 Integrals are usually required between limits. 1857 Wood Algebra 168 This quantity, which we call the sum of the series, is the limit to which the sum of the terms approaches, but never actually attains. |
c. Astron. limit of a planet: its greatest heliocentric latitude.
| 1704 Harris Lex. Techn., Limit of a Planet is the greatest Heliocentrick Latitude. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Limits of a planet, its greatest excursions or distances from the ecliptic. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) II. 507/2 Suppose Venus to be in the point C in her utmost north limit. |
d. Comm. In various applications,
e.g. the amount up to which a particular customer of a bank is not permitted to overdraw, the price given by a principal to an agent as the highest at which he will buy, or the lowest at which he will sell.
founder's limit (see
quot. 1872–6).
| 1866 Crump Banking iii. 76 The banker gives him [his customer] a ‘limit’, beyond which he must not draw. 1872–6 Voyle Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), Limit, Founder's. In the manufacture of ordnance, the limitation of error for guns, shot, &c. allowed to the founder. |
e. In generalized sense: Limitation, restriction within limits. Chiefly in
phr. without limit.
| 1599 Shakes. Much Ado i. iii. 5 The sadnesse is without limit. 1742 Young Nt. Th. vi. 463 Souls..Disdaining Limit, or from Place, or Time. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 22 Pain is the violation, and pleasure the restoration of limit. |
¶ f. Used by
Shakes. for: Prescribed time; the prescribed period of repose after child-bearing.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 224 Between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnitie. 1611 ― Wint. T. iii. ii. 107 Lastly, hurried Here, to this place, i' th' open ayre, before I haue got strength of limit. |
g. In various card games, as (
a)
Poker, an agreed maximum stake or bet; so
attrib., as
limit game; (
b)
Bridge, a call which shows that the strength of the caller's hand does not exceed a certain value;
usu. attrib., as
limit bid,
limit raise.
| (a) 1892 W. J. Florence Handbk. Poker 90 Before a game is commenced it is agreed that so many chips shall be the limit... No game ever should be played without a limit. 1928 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 116/1 Once again the betting came to Poker Jack, and this was his chance. He coolly raised Rymington the limit, and left his two opponents half-stupefied. 1963 Esquire's Bk. Gambling ii. iv. 109 It is virtually impossible to bluff in a limit game. With a limit, poker is more like Screeno... Big Poker..as any unlimited-stakes player will be happy to tell you..requires the most brutality. |
| (b) 1959 Reese & Dormer Bridge Player's Dict. 138 A limit-bid is one that describes the strength of a player's hand within fairly narrow limits. Ibid., A raise of partner's suit is generally a limit-raise, expressing the full value of the hand. 1959 Listener 24 Dec. 1118/2 Three Spades was a limit bid, which East might have passed. 1964 Official Encycl. Bridge 331/1 Limit, (1) the highest stake permitted in a bridge club... (2) A bid which shows a maximum as well as a minimum range of values in the bidder's hand. 1974 Times 23 Feb. 11/1 A player must take the decision whether..to go straight for a limit bid. |
h. colloq. The very extreme; the last point or stage; the worst (etc.) imaginable or endurable; the maximum penalty. Phr.:
go the limit, to behave in an extreme way; to last the stated number of rounds or the full time, as in a boxing match; to allow sexual intercourse;
over the limit, having exceeded a stated bound or point.
orig. U.S. (Apparently a
fig. use of 2 g.)
Cf. the frozen limit (
frozen ppl. a. 1 b).
| 1904 Montgomery (Alabama) Weekly Advertiser 26 Aug. 4 We can always depend on Kansas to go the limit in the freak line. 1906 N.Y. Even. Post 7 May 1 Desertion is bad enough..but to fire at one's comrades while in the act of turning against them is—well, the limit. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 16 Aug. 2/1 They [sc. wages] are low everywhere..but Belfast is what Americans would call ‘the limit’. 1908 A. J. Dawson Finn xxiii. 353 I'll be teetotally damned if that ain't the limit! a 1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. 389 We've made the plunge. We'll go—the limit. 1914 W. G. Lawrence in T. E. Lawrence Home Lett. (1954) 502 Bankers and business people of all sorts are the real limit. 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin v. 79 Oh, to hell with you and your rotten excuses!.. You're about the frozen limit! 1919 G. B. Shaw Heartbreak House i. 18 Really! your father does seem to be about the limit. 1925 E. F. Norton Fight for Everest, 1924 110 If vitality is low in the early hours at Camp III at 21,000 feet, it can be guessed how near the limit 6 a.m. found us at 27,000. 1925 G. Mallory in Ibid. 237 That cutting against time at the end after such a day just about brought me to my limit. 1925 L. J. Smits Spring Flight viii. 89 I'd marry a girl who had gone the limit just as willingly as I would a strict one, perhaps a little sooner. 1927 Amer. Speech III. 29 The boxer ‘goes the limit’ if he succeeds in lasting the specified number of rounds. 1947 ‘N. Shute’ Chequer Board iii. 68 If you get anything to go before court martial, for example, I'll see they get the limit. 1949 A. Christie Crooked House xvi. 126 This house is the absolute limit!.. I don't see why I should have to be burdened with such peculiar parents. 1966 Daily Tel. 11 Aug. 26/6 Attempting to drive while over the 80 mg/100 ml. limit can be punished... Being in charge of a vehicle while ‘over the limit’ can lead..to up to four months' imprisonment. 1968 N. Benchley Welcome to Xanadu iii. 52 She'd heard girls in school talk about going the limit, or all the way. |
† 3. a. The tract or region defined by a boundary;
pl. the bounds, territories.
Obs.| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clxiii. 156 The sayd two bretherne,..entryd the lymyttys of Kynge Charlys. 1581 Lambarde Eiren. iv. xx. (1588) 619 Those Sessions were to be holden in euery limite of the Shire. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 75 The Arch-Deacon hath diuided it Into three Limits, very equally. c 1600 ― Sonn. xliv, I would be brought From limits farre remote, where thou doost stay. 1603 Owen Pembrokeshire (1891) 161 In everye Parishe or Lymitte. 1611 Bible Ezek. xliii. 12 Vpon the top of the mountaine, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. a 1649 Winthrop Hist. New Eng. (1826) II. 314 The Dutch governour..pretended to seize the ship as forfeit to the West India Company by trading in their limits without leave. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 755 At length into the limits of the North They came. 1792 S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 290 Great Navarre, when France and freedom bled Sought the lone limits of a forest shed. |
† b. ? A division or part of the territory (in
quot., of one of the Cinque Ports).
Obs.| c 1692 R. Gibson in Gardiner 1st Dutch War (1899) I. 40 The sea government at all those places by courts of Lode manage at each, and the lesser seaports adjacent to be made limits to the greater. |
c. U.S. and
Canada. A tract of woodland of defined extent, a timber allotment.
| 1887 S. Cumberland Queen's Highw. fr. Ocean to O. (1887) 5 Timber limits of inexhaustible extent. 1888 Harper's Mag. Mar. 550/2 The voyageur..reports the quality and quantity of timber in certain ‘limits’ or lots. |
† 4. Logic.
= term (
med.L.
terminus).
Obs.| 1599 Blundeville Art of Logic v. i. 116 Why are they [sc. material principles] called tearmes or limites? Because they lymmet a proposition..and bee the vttermost partes or bondes whereunto any proposition is to bee resolved, as for example in this proposition, euery man is a sensible bodie: these two wordes, man and sensible bodie, are the tearmes, limmetes, or boundes, whereof as the saide proposition is compounded, so into the same it is to be resolued, as into his vttermost parts that haue any signification. |
5. attrib., as
limit-law,
limit-line;
limit dog, one shown in a class limited to dogs having certain required qualifications;
limit gauge Engin., a gauge used for determining whether a dimension of a manufactured item falls within the specified tolerance; so
limit gauging, the use of limit gauges to ensure the interchangeability of parts;
limit load Aeronaut., the maximum load that an aircraft or part of one is expected to bear in particular conditions of operation; so
limit load factor, the load factor corresponding to this load;
limit point Math., a point every neighbourhood of which contains a point (
usu., a point other than the limit point) belonging to a given set;
† limit-stead, a place on a boundary;
limit switch Engin., a switch that prevents the travel of an object past some predetermined point and is mechanically operated by the motion of the object itself.
| 1903 Forest & Stream 21 Feb. 151/2 *Limit dogs was won by St. Elvan. 1909 Daily Chron. 11 Feb. 5/6 The first prize for limit dogs over 45 lb. |
| 1905 A. Parr Machine Tools & Workshop Pract. i. 10 (caption) *Limit gauge. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 7 Dec. 5/1 When it comes to be measured in a special limit-gauge, the slightest discrepancy is discovered. 1970 W. J. Patton Mod. Manuf. xvii. 454 Instead of measuring actual dimensions, we usually check conformity to tolerance specifications in a production run by fixed limit gauges, often termed ‘GO’ and ‘NOT GO’ gauges. |
| 1920 Proc. Inst. Mech. Engin. Nov. 1076 *Limit gauging may be applied to many kinds of fit. 1964 S. Crawford Basic Engin. Processes xiv. 296 Limit-gauging systems have played an essential part in the development of the technique of quantity production. |
| 1849 R. V. Dixon Heat i. 139 Boyle's and Mariotte's law may be considered a ‘*limit law’. |
| 1864 Browning Dram. Pers., James Lee viii. 14 ‘As like as a Hand to another Hand:’ Who said that, never..followed, like me, an hour, The beauty in this..of the *limit-line! 1889 Boy's Own Paper 7 Sept. 780/1 At a given distance from the limit-line of the square in putting the weight..a rectangular pit is prepared. |
| 1950 D. J. Peery Aircraft Struct. iii. 69 The maximum loads which an airplane may be expected to encounter at any time in service are designated as *limit loads or applied loads. The load factors associated with these loads are known as limit load factors... For loads which are under the control of the pilot, flight restrictions are used so that the limit load factor is never exceeded. 1967 Technology Week 23 Jan. 66/2 As an industry, we have done remarkably well, from a safety point of view, operating large aircraft with limit load factors of only 2·5 in rough air. 1972 T. H. G. Megson Aircraft Struct. xii. 413 Having decided on an ultimate load then the limit load may be fixed. |
| 1905 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. VI. 90 A geometrically closed set of points is a set that includes all its geometrical *limit points. 1926 C. Walmsley Introd. Course Math. Analysis i. 44 For general sequences we define a limit (or limit point, limiting point, limiting value, limiting number) of any sequence s1, s2, s3,..as any number L, within an arbitrarily small neighbourhood of which..there lie numbers of the sequence; a number of the sequence itself not being a limit of the sequence unless it is repeated indefinitely often as a term of the sequence or there are other terms of the sequence within the arbitrarily small neighbourhood. 1959 E. M. Patterson Topology (ed. 2) ii. 29 The points x = 0 and x = 1 are limit points of the set 0 |
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xliii. (Cecile) 448 Þane ware þe brethire one led, til þai come til þe *lymmyt-stede. |
| 1930 Engineering 9 May 595/2 Automatic control at the end of travel is provided by geared *limit switches, and intermediate positions are signalled by a travelling nut on the limit switch. 1956 Railway Mag. May 338/1 Limit switches are provided in the hoisting motion, and in the derricking motion, to limit the amount of travel in both directions. 1974 BP Shield Internat. Oct. 2 (caption) The computerised electronic requirement that operates all valves, limit switches, pressure transducers. |
Add:
[5.] limit cycle Math. [
tr. Fr. cycle limite (coined by H. Poincaré 1880, in
Compt. Rend. XC. 674).] A closed path in phase space representing a limit,
esp. one that is an attractor.
| 1948 Mat. Japonicae I. 130 Thus a closed curve across which the integral curve cuts inward always, and there exists a limit cycle between a closed curve about (0,0) and the now obtained closed curve. 1978 Bull. Math. Biol. XL. 31 In the theory of ordinary differential equations a limit cycle attractor is a periodic solution to a differential equation which has the property that the trajectory through every point in phase space sufficiently close to the closed curve defined by the periodic solution approaches that closed curve asymptotically as t→∞. 1979 Nature 23 Aug. 677/2 A two-dimensional limit-cycle model..predicts the behaviour in darkness of..the Drosophila pseudoobscura circadian eclosion rhythm. 1986 Sci. Amer. Dec. 42/1 Another familiar system with a limit-cycle attractor is the heart. 1988 I. Peterson Math. Tourist vi. 146 The same principle applies to metronomes and the human heart: they repeat the same motion over and over again. In phase space, such a motion corresponds to a cycle or a periodic orbit. Such attractors are called limit cycles. |
▪ II. limit, v. (
ˈlɪmɪt)
Forms: 4–6
lymyt(e, 6–7
limite,
limmit,
lymit, (6
lemyt,
limitte, 7
limytt), 5–
limit. Also
pa. tense 5
lymett;
pa. pple. 4
lemete, 5–6
lemett,
lymyt, 6
lymmit,
-yt.
[ad. F. limiter, ad. L. līmitāre, f. līmit-, līmes limit n.] 1. trans. To assign within limits (also
to limit and assign,
limit and ordain); to appoint, fix definitely; to specify. Also with
away,
over. Const.
dat. or
to, (
till),
upon, and
to with
inf. Obs. exc. in legal language.
| 138.. Wyclif Wks. (1880) 298 As tyme & oþer circumstaunce þat limiten peyne for a dede ben aȝen þe fredom þat crist wole haue in hise lawe. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxv. 118 Ilkane of þer ostez hase þaire iourneez limited. a 1400–50 Alexander 4283 Oure lord has lemett vs elike þe lenthe of oure days. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) v. i. (1859) 72 Of endeles thynge maye no proporcion be lymyted, ne accounted. 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 125/1 Thoo peynes that ben specialli lymyted upon the seid Baillifs. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xix. 6 Apon the erth he send lightnes, Both son and moyne lymett thertyll. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clxxxv. 184 At the daye before lymytted and assygned. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xliv. 143 The Lady Elyanoure had it lymytted to her for her dowry. 1536 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 55 Under a certaine paine lymitted for the same for the said cleargie. 1581 W. Stafford Exam. Compl. iii. (1876) 91 Euery Artificer dwelling out of all townes..should bee limitted to bee vnder the direction of one good Towne or other. c 1590 Marlowe Faust xiv. (1604) F 2 b, O, no end is limited to damned soules! 1603 Owen Pembrokeshire i. (1891) 1 The Center or middle of the same Shere which I limytt to be aboute Heythoch moore. 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. xi. (1632) 578 Astrology could not yet limit the motion of the Moone. 1668 Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 250 Neither do I believe we can finish it and the rest within the time limited us by his Majesty. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 266 The time limitted in the bottomry bond. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 155 If..the estate be limited over to a third person. 1795 Bentham Supply without Burden 32 When an estate in England has been limited away from a man altogether, he never looks at it. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 175 In the release there was a power..to revoke the uses contained therein, and to limit other uses. |
† b. To appoint (a person) to an office; to assign (a duty) to a person.
Obs.| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 140 Þree offices of heerdis þat Crist haþ lymytid to hem. c 1380 ― Wks. (1880) 331 As if a pope make a lawe þat who euer he lymytiþ to here confessioun of þis man or confession of þis comunatee, he shal here þise mennes shrifte. 1420 Searchers Verdicts in Surtees Misc. (1888) 16 Sercheours..assigned and lymyt by Thomas of Gare. 1482 M. Paston's Will in P. Lett. III. 286 After the stipend of the preste lymyted to synge for me be yerly levied. c 1505 in Plumpton Corr. 189, I had the keyes levered me..& had a fellow lemett to keep the said schawnter with me, & he faylled me in my most neede. 1557 Paynel Barclay's Jugurth 42 He had lymitted hym in Numidy in his stede to be captayne of the army. 1638 Heywood Wise Woman iv. i. Wks. 1874 V. 319, I limit you to be a welcome guest unto my Table. |
† c. To lot or plot
out; to allot, apportion.
Obs.| 1530 Palsgr. 612/1 Our grounds were lymyted afore our fathers dayes. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse Pref. A vj, And by..th'equinoctiall, polary circles, and altitude of the pole, to limite out the Zones, Climates, and Paralleles. 1577 Harrison England ii. iv. (1877) i. 91 England was limited out by families and hidelands. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 765/2 God..hath limited out all our life. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. vi. (1628) 157 Markenryc, that is the country or Kingdome, marked or limited out. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. i. §8 (1622) 190 He had all his learning and knowledge limited out vnto him: yea, and that by a scant scantling. a 1649 Prayers in Chas. I's Wks. (1662) 197 Let thy infinite Power vouchsafe to limit out some proportion of deliverance unto Me. |
† d. Math. To lay down, ‘give’ in the hypothesis of a proposition.
Obs.| 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. xv, The likeiamme..hath one angle..like to D. the angle that was limitted. Ibid. ii. iii, This triangle..hath two corners equal eche to other, that is A and B, as I do by supposition limite. |
† e. pass. of proportions or contour: To be outlined or drawn (in a specified manner).
Obs.| 1636 W. Bettie Titana & Theseus B 2, Seeing his face so perfectly featured, and viewing each limb, the portraiture of his body so well limited, that [etc.]. |
2. To confine within limits, to set bounds to (
rarely in material sense); to bound, restrict. Const.
to.
† Also, to prohibit (a person)
from (something).
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 457 Thy lycence es lemete in presence of lordys. 1508 Fisher 7 Penit. Ps. cxxx. Wks. (1876) 226 The mercy of god..can neuer be lymyt to ony creature. c 1530 More Answ. Frith Wks. 841/1 Than must he limitte Gods power howe farre he will geue God leaue to stretche it. 1555 Eden Decades 11 They haue lymyted and enclosed certeyne grounde to make gardeynes and orchiardes. 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. xvii. 298 He limiteth and restraineth his permission, saying, Rest a while. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxix. §1 If in continuance also limited, they all haue..their set..termes. 1631 Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 80 S{supr} Francis Leake..made a deed limitting the use to my Lady Leake. 1662 Earl of Orrery State Lett. (1743) I. 77 His Hylas was not limited to numbers and rhyme, as mine is. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals ii. iii. 186 He was limited in his Victuals, and ty'd up to a certain allowance every day. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 557 He thought a government limited by law was only a name. 1722 De Foe Moll Flanders (ed. 3) 62, I had a Husband and no Husband..: Thus I say, I was limited from Marriage, what Offer soever might be made me. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. x. 362 He limited his number of cavalry to six thousand men. 1786 Burke W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 143 The act of parliament..did expressly limit the duration of their office to the term of five years. 1813 Lady Hamilton in G. Rose's Diaries (1860) I. 272 You do not know how limited I am. I have left everything to be sold for the creditors. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) I. 418 A man cannot by any conveyance at common law limit an estate to his wife. 1828 D'Israeli Chas. I, I. vii. 216 The philosophical inquirer will not limit his researches by simple dates. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xvi. (1862) 249 And it [the succession] was afterwards further limited to the descendants of James I.'s daughter. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxviii. 282 Our draft on the stores..had been limited for some days to..eggs [etc.]. 1874 Green Short Hist. v. §1. 218 The commerce..was still mainly limited to the exportation of wool to Flanders. 1900 F. Anstey Brass Bottle iii. 35 If you remember, sir, you strictly limited me to the sums you marked. |
b. To serve as a limit or boundary to; to bound; to mark off
from. Also
to limit in. Now
rare.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 26 This rule thus fixed no tyme shal limit, or hazard. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. v. (1636) 560 The Provinces that..are limited with the Provinces of China. 1601 Weever Mirr. Mart. E v, Limits there be for euery thing beside, No banks can limit in the sea of pride. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 122 The kingdome of the Parthians..is limited and separat by these mountaines and streights. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis i. xx. 60 The souldiers reached to the doore of the Temple, in two rankes, limiting the way to them that came to the Princesse. 1633 Earl of Manchester Al Mondo (1636) 185 God cannot bee God, if Nature limit him. 1889 Geddes & Thomson Evolution of Sex xi. 146 Round the chromatin rods vacuoles are formed, limiting them from the surrounding protoplasm. |
† 3. intr. To border
upon (a country).
Obs.| 1613 Sherley Trav. Persia 4 Those countries limitting upon the King of Spaines vniall partes. |
† 4. To beg within specified limits. [A back-formation from
limiter (sense 1).]
Obs. rare—1.
| 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 57 They [Popishe friers] go ydelly a limiting abrode. |