circumscribe
to restrict or limit something within bounds
Word origin: From Latin circumscribere, to draw a line around (circum around plus scribere to write).
Circumscribe in a sentence
Here are example sentences showing circumscribe in a sentence.
The new law sharply circumscribed the agency's power to act.
The new statute sharply circumscribed the powers the regulator had previously enjoyed.
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Verbal · Text Completion
The historian argued that the empire's collapse was not blank but the predictable outcome of decades of fiscal mismanagement that contemporaries had simply refused to acknowledge.
Using “circumscribe” well
Circumscribe means to draw a boundary around and thereby restrict. The literal image is of drawing a circle to confine something.
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Questions about “circumscribe”
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