Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To establish the limits or boundaries of; demarcate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To mark or fix the limits or boundaries of; bound.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To fix the limits of; to demarcate; to bound.
WordNet 3.0
- v. set, mark, or draw the boundaries of something
- v. determine the essential quality of
- v. be opposite to; of angles and sides, in geometry
Etymologies
- From French délimiter, from Late Latin delimitare ("to mark out the limits"), from de- + limitare ("to limit, bound"); see limit. (Wiktionary)
- French délimiter, from Latin dēlīmitāre : dē-, de- + līmitāre, to limit (from līmes, līmit-, boundary line). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The stockades of every plot and the trees and shrubs planted along the same ones, they delimit perfectly the transit between the private ownership and the community one.”
“The only drawback is that being given it has few inside walls in order to delimit these rooms, privacy is a big issue when it comes to guests.”
“During such evaluations, the patient remains conscious and can report back to the surgeons, who can therefore electrically stimulate the brain to identify and delimit the abnormal tissue, while also identifying nearby tissue that performs important functions and must be spared.”
The Guardian: Deep brain stimulation enhances spatial memory
“This is in strong contrast to applications which hold information in databases with relatively inflexible structure behind APIs that strictly delimit possible interactions.”
“The ability to control the darkness is the ability to command the light, and the ability to control the waters is the ability to delimit their boundaries and make them useful rather than destructive; useful for sustaining life.”
“The Obama administration, which struck a new direction in both regards, has added a new wrinkle to delimit nuclear use.”
“But no such categorical limitation figures in the pragmatic, effects-based approach the Supreme Court has since 1937 used to delimit the commerce power.”
“It's up to the state to delimit the rules; if there is enough land for wealthy foreigners, there must be enough land for aboriginal peoples as well.”
The Huffington Post: Pepe Escobar: Patagonia: The End of the World Is on Sale
“But the Court has insisted that Congress also enact an intelligible principle to delimit the legislative choices available to presidentially appointed experts and passing the buck for major policy to unelected officials.”
The Huffington Post: Bruce Fein: Congressional Abdication to the Fed
“But those were just the observable responses surrounding the original glimmer of attraction, just as the songs and poems that tried to delimit love were not the thing itself.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘delimit’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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Uncommon and Interesting words
That come in handy, but might make you look like a douchebag.
prurient, lithe, superannuated, wanderlust, sanguine, florid, slugabed, candor, eldritch, superbowl syndrome, indolent, perforce and 37 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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1st cut
abeyance, abscission, accretion, abyss, acidulous, adulterate, adumbrate, aerie, ameliorate, anachoronistic, analgesia, anodyne and 315 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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GRE
churlish, polemical, exaltation, docile, esoteric, panache, coercion, restitution, lugubrious, indefatigable, delimit, demarcate and 99 more...
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Word of Infinite Jest
quincunx, plosivity, prolix, aleatory, diagnate, appetitive, experialist, candidiatic, chapeau, perfidiously, antitheory, décolletage and 150 more...
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Manhattan Advanced 3
collude, cabal, compendium, confound, baffle, flummoxed, connote, contumacious, convoke, convene, cosset, coddle and 77 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for delimit.
shadesofinsanity Ah, I see. So something like "Scotland is delimited by England on its southern boarder" would be more appropriate, I suppose? Feb 1, 2009
bilby The suburb of Puckerup is delimited by Lovers Lane on its eastern boundary, Resuscitation Square to the west, Osculation Industrial Zone on its southern approach and the Straits of EBV Infectious Mononucleosis at its northern extent. Feb 1, 2009
shadesofinsanity Very interesting word; I have no idea how I'd use it in a sentence.
"The angle is delimit the side of the triangle."? "Please delimit the boundaries of the country."?
I have a feeling that's not right. :P Feb 1, 2009