circumscribe

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To draw a line around; encircle.
2. v. To limit narrowly; restrict.
3. v. To determine the limits of; define. See Synonyms at limit.
4. v. To enclose (a polygon or polyhedron) within a configuration of lines, curves, or surfaces so that every vertex of the enclosed object is incident on the enclosing configuration.
5. v. To erect (such a configuration) around a polygon or polyhedron: circumscribe a circle around a square.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To write or inscribe around.
2. To mark out certain bounds or limits for; inclose within certain limits; limit; bound; confine; restrain.
3. In geometry, to draw around so as to touch at as many points as possible. A curve is said to be circumscribed about a polygon when it passes through every vertex of the latter; a multilateral figure is said to circumscribe or be circumscribed about a curve when its every side is tangent to the curve. The term is also applied simliarly to surfaces. Thus, a cone circumscribes a surface only if every side of it is tangent to that surface.

Wiktionary

1. v. To draw a line around; to encircle.
2. v. To limit narrowly; to restrict.
3. v. To draw the smallest circle or higher-dimensional sphere that has (a polyhedron, polygon, etc.) in its interior.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. to write or engrave around.
2. v. To inclose within a certain limit; to hem in; to surround; to bound; to confine; to restrain.
3. v. To draw a line around so as to touch at certain points without cutting. See Inscribe, 5.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. restrict or confine,
2. v. to draw a geometric figure around another figure so that the two are in contact but do not intersect
3. v. draw a line around