Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Limit

Lim′it (lĭm′ĭt), 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.

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

2. The space or thing defined by limits.

The archdeacon hath divided it Into three limits very equally. Shak.

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

The dateless limit of thy dear exile. Shak.

The limit of your lives is out. Shak.

4. A restriction; a check; a curb; a hindrance.

I prithee, give no limits to my tongue. Shak.

5. (Logic & Metaph.) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic; a differentia.

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.

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.

Lim′it (lĭm′ĭt), 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.

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.

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

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.