v. [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. J. 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 Conscribed ppl. a.
1654. R. Codrington, trans. Hist. Ivstine, 89. With this conscribed Army composed of the outcasts of man.
