[ad. L. circumscrīptiōn-em sb. 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. Shaks., 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. D. Simon, trans. 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. Beresf. 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. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 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 (1811), 304. The coin of king Richard the first, 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.’
¶ trans. L. circumscriptio deceit, defrauding.
1875. Poste, Gaius, I. (ed. 2), 149. The circumscription of a minor … rendered the person convicted thereof infamis.
