*limit*

v. 1. to determine the essential quality of.
Syn. -- specify, define, delineate, delimit. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. to set, mark, or draw the boundaries of something.
Syn. -- demarcate, delimit. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L. delimitatio: cf. F. délimitation. ] The act or process of fixing limits or boundaries; limitation. Gladstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Being beyond the limit or bounds; as, extraliminary land. Mitford. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. il- not + limitable: cf. F. illimitable. ] Incapable of being limited or bounded; immeasurable; limitless; boundless; as, illimitable space. [ 1913 Webster ]

The wild, the irregular, the illimitable, and the luxuriant, have their appropriate force of beauty. De Quincey.

Syn. -- Boundless; limitless; unlimited; unbounded; immeasurable; infinite; immense; vast.

-- Il*lim"it*a*ble*ness, n. -- Il*lim"it*a*bly, adv. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. il- not + limitation: cf. F. illimitation. ] State of being illimitable; lack of, or freedom from, limitation. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not limited; interminable. Bp. Hall. -- Il*lim"it*ed*ness, n. [1913 Webster]

The absoluteness and illimitedness of his commission was generally much spoken of. Clarendon. [1913 Webster]

n. [ From L. limes, limitis: cf. F. limite; -or from E. limit, v. See Limit, v. t. ] 1. That which terminates, circumscribes, restrains, or confines; the bound, border, or edge; the utmost extent; as, the limit of a walk, of a town, of a country; the limits of human knowledge or endeavor. [ 1913 Webster ]

As eager of the chase, the maid
Beyond the forest's verdant limits strayed. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The space or thing defined by limits. [ 1913 Webster ]

The archdeacon hath divided it
Into three limits very equally. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent. [ 1913 Webster ]

The dateless limit of thy dear exile. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The limit of your lives is out. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A restriction; a check; a curb; a hindrance. [ 1913 Webster ]

I prithee, give no limits to my tongue. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Logic & Metaph.) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic; a differentia. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Elastic limit. See under Elastic. --
Prison limits, a definite, extent of space in or around a prison, within which a prisoner has liberty to go and come.

Syn. -- Boundary; border; edge; termination; restriction; bound; confine. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Limited; p. pr. & vb. n. Limiting. ] [ F. limiter, L. limitare, fr. limes, limitis, limit; prob. akin to limen threshold, E. eliminate; cf. L. limus sidelong. ] To apply a limit to, or set a limit for; to terminate, circumscribe, or restrict, by a limit or limits; as, to limit the acreage of a crop; to limit the issue of paper money; to limit one's ambitions or aspirations; to limit the meaning of a word. [ 1913 Webster ]

Limiting parallels (Astron.), those parallels of latitude between which only an occultation of a star or planet by the moon, in a given case, can occur. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region; as, a limiting friar. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being limited. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. limitaneus. See Limit, v. t. ] Of or pertaining to a limit. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Tending to limit. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. limitaris. See Limit , v. t. ] 1. Placed at the limit, as a guard. “Proud limitary cherub.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Confined within limits; limited in extent, authority, power, etc. “The limitary ocean.” Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

The poor, limitary creature calling himself a man of the world. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Limiting, or tending to limit; restrictive. [ 1913 Webster ]

Doctrines limitary, if not subversive of the papal power. Milman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. limitaries 1. That which serves to limit; a boundary; border land. [ Obs. ] Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A limiter. See Limiter, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. limitatus, p. p. of limitare to limit. See Limit, v. t. ] Bounded by a distinct line. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. limitatio: cf. F. limitation. See Limit, v. t. ] 1. The act of limiting; the state or condition of being limited; as, the limitation of his authority was approved by the council. [ 1913 Webster ]

They had no right to mistake the limitation . . . of their own faculties, for an inherent limitation of the possible modes of existence in the universe. J. S. Mill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which limits; a restriction; a qualification; a restraining condition, defining circumstance, or qualifying conception; as, limitations of thought. [ 1913 Webster ]

The cause of error is ignorance what restraints and limitations all principles have in regard of the matter whereunto they are applicable. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A certain precinct within which friars were allowed to beg, or exercise their functions; also, the time during which they were permitted to exercise their functions in such a district. Chaucer. Latimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A limited time within or during which something is to be done. [ 1913 Webster ]

You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes
Endue you with the people's voice. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Law) (a) A certain period limited by statute after which the claimant shall not enforce his claims by suit. (b) A settling of an estate or property by specific rules. (c) A restriction of power; as, a constitutional limitation. Wharton. Bouvier. [ 1913 Webster ]

To know one's own limitations, to know the reach and limits of one's abilities. A. R. Wallace. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Confined within limits; narrow; circumscribed; restricted; as, our views of nature are very limited. [ 1913 Webster ]

Limited company, a company in which the liability of each shareholder is limited by the number of shares he has taken, so that he can not be called on to contribute beyond the amount of his shares. [ Eng. ] Mozley & W. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. With limitation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being limited. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, limits. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A friar licensed to beg within certain bounds, or whose duty was limited to a certain district. [ Formerly written also limitour. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

A limitour of the Gray Friars, in the time of his limitation, preached many times, and had but one sermon at all times. Latimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Involving a limit; as, a limitive law, one designed to limit existing powers. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having no limits; unbounded; boundless. Davies (Wit's Pilgr.). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Limiter, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the limit on the lower (or southernmost) side of something. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. Want of limitation; failure to limit. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. barred to a designated group; as, the topless bar is off-lints to military personnel.
Syn. -- out-of-bounds(predicate). [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. To limit previously. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Sublimities [ L. sublimitas: cf. F. sublimité. ] 1. The quality or state of being sublime (in any sense of the adjective). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which is sublime; as, the sublimities of nature. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Grandeur; magnificence. -- Sublimity, Grandeur. The mental state indicated by these two words is the same, namely, a mingled emotion of astonishment and awe. In speaking of the quality which produces this emotion, we call it grandeur when it springs from what is vast in space, power, etc.; we call it sublimity when it springs from what is elevated far above the ordinary incidents of humanity. An immense plain is grand. The heavens are not only grand, but sublime (as the predominating emotion), from their immense height. Exalted intellect, and especially exalted virtue under severe trials, give us the sense of moral sublimity, as in the case of our Savior in his prayer for his murderers. We do not speak of Satan, when standing by the fiery gulf, with his “unconquerable will and study of revenge, ” as a sublime object; but there is a melancholy grandeur thrown around him, as of an “archangel ruined.” [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Illimitable. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]