limit

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The point, edge, or line beyond which something cannot or may not proceed.
2. n. The boundary surrounding a specific area; bounds: within the city limits.
3. n. A confining or restricting object, agent, or influence.
4. n. The greatest or least amount, number, or extent allowed or possible: a withdrawal limit of $200; no minimum age limit.
5. n. Games The largest amount which may be bet at one time in games of chance.
6. n. Mathematics A number or point L that is approached by a function f(x) as x approaches a if, for every positive number ε, there exists a number δ such that }f(x)-L} < ε if 0 < }x-a} < δ. Also called limit point, point of accumulation.
7. n. Informal One that approaches or exceeds certain limits, as of credibility, forbearance, or acceptability: He is the limit of irresponsibility.
8. v. To confine or restrict within a boundary or bounds.
9. v. To fix definitely; to specify.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A definite terminal or border line; a boundary; that which bounds or circumscribes in a material manner; as, the northern limit of a field or town; the limits of a country.
2. n. A terminal line or point in general; the extent or reach beyond which continuity ceases; a fixed term or bound as to amount, supply, continuance, inclusion, or the like: used of both material and immaterial things: as, to reach the limit of one's resources; the limit of vision or of resistance; to set limits to one's ambition.
3. n. That which is within or defined by limits; confine; district; region.
4. n. A logical term. See the quotation.
5. n. In mathematics, the precise boundary between two continuous regions of magnitude or quantity; especially, the point at which a variable upon which some function depends passes through infinity. It is frequently said to be the value that a variable quantity may indefinitely approach but can never reach—a definition which, as tacitly assuming that the variable depends upon another which increases by successive finite steps, introduces an inessential element, while altogether overlooking the essential one of continuity.
6. n. A limb, as a limit or extremity of the body.
7. n. Synonyms Confine, termination, bourn, precinct, boundary, frontier (see boundary); restriction, restraint, check.
8. To restrict within limits; bound; set bounds to.
9. To assign to a limit or confine; fix within a limit; allot.
10. To fix as a limit; assign exclusively or specifically.
11. To exercise any function, as begging, within a limited district: as, a limiting friar.
12. n. Inpoker, an amount, agreed upon before play begins, by which any one player may increase his bet over that of another. Sometimes called the raise.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound.
2. v. mathematics, intransitive To have a limit in a particular set.
3. v. obsolete To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.
4. n. A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.
5. n. mathematics A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge).
6. n. mathematics Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit.
7. n. category theory Given diagram F : J → C, a cone (L, φ) from L ∈ Ob(C) to F is the limit of F if it has the universal property that for any other cone (N, ψ) from N ∈ Ob(C) to F there is a unique morphism u : N → L such that for all X ∈ Ob(J), .
8. n. poker Short for fixed limit.
9. n. The final, utmost, or furthest point.
10. adj. poker Being a fixed limit game.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. That which terminates, circumscribes, restrains, or confines; the bound, border, or edge; the utmost extent
2. n. The space or thing defined by limits.
3. n. That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent.
4. n. A restriction; a check; a curb; a hindrance.
5. n. (Logic & Metaph.) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic; a differentia.
6. n. (Math.) A determinate quantity, to which a variable one continually approaches, and may differ from it by less than any given difference, but to which, under the law of variation, the variable can never become exactly equivalent.
7. v. To apply a limit to, or set a limit for; to terminate, circumscribe, or restrict, by a limit or limits
8. v. obsolete To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the greatest possible degree of something
2. n. final or latest limiting point
3. n. the greatest amount of something that is possible or allowed
4. n. as far as something can go
5. v. restrict or confine,
6. v. place limits on (extent or access)
7. v. decide upon or fix definitely
8. n. the boundary of a specific area
9. n. the mathematical value toward which a function goes as the independent variable approaches infinity