How to Use circumscribe in a Sentence

circumscribe

verb

• The circle is circumscribed by a square.
• RuPaul told me that his social life is circumscribed, in some ways, by design.
  — Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2024
• The operas’ texts, like Stein’s, are also circumscribed.
  — Marcus Overton, sandiegouniontribune.com, 11 May 2017
• All those very much circumscribe their ability to thrive.
  — Karin Wulf, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Mar. 2021
• The idea of how a pregnant woman should appear in public wasn’t always this highly circumscribed.
  — Anne Helen Petersen, Cosmopolitan, 19 June 2017
• These Black artists are asserting their right to public space at a time when that space is still circumscribed by race, gender and class — and can be fatal to occupy.
  — Emily Lordi, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2023
• Real-life pairings are usually circumscribed by a person’s social sphere, and the chances of meeting a total stranger are low.
  — The Economist, 12 Sep. 2019
• The culmination of decades of research, a reservoir of hope for thousands, these oblong tablets were supposed to transform her life, a life circumscribed by illness and the specter of early death.
  — Felice J. Freyer — Boston Globe, STAT, 20 Sep. 2023
• If he is convicted of any of the charges, whether at trial or through a plea, his role would be severely circumscribed under House rules, and he would likely be compelled to resign.
  — Michael Gold, New York Times, 10 May 2023
• The law, known as the Online News Act, is one part of a broad and contentious effort by the Canadian government to regulate the digital sphere and circumscribe the power of tech giants.
  — Amanda Coletta and Gerrit De Vynck, Anchorage Daily News, 23 June 2023
• Our identities and sense of worth were not circumscribed, but are enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.
  — Li Zhou, Vox, 1 Sep. 2018
• My current contact with her is very circumscribed by my desire to respect my husband’s wishes.
  — Amy Dickinson, The Denver Post, 28 Mar. 2017
• In practice, this would mean, for example, that the Baltic states and Poland would enjoy the same large, but ultimately circumscribed, degree of sovereignty as, say, Canada does.
  — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 3 May 2023
• On small campuses, this can mean his life is completely circumscribed.
  — Emily Yoffe, The Atlantic, 6 Sep. 2017
• After six months of clashes on the streets of Hong Kong, one thing is clear: The act of protesting is no longer circumscribed by the rituals of large-scale street demonstrations, rallies in public squares, or throwing petrol bombs.
  — Isabella Steger, Quartz, 28 Dec. 2019
• Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.
  — Natalie Andrews, WSJ, 27 Aug. 2018
• However, since Messrs Brin and Page retain control via a dual-class share structure, his freedom will be circumscribed.
  — The Economist, 4 Dec. 2019
• There are times when private actors and places can be treated like government ones, such that the First Amendment can circumscribe that company’s practices.
  — Emily Stewart, Vox, 23 Aug. 2018
• The cover featured a close-up of British model of the moment Jean Shrimpton, with her face circumscribed by a Matisse-like pink cutout that vaguely suggested the curves of an astronaut’s helmet.
  — Stephen Mooallem, Harper's BAZAAR, 9 June 2017
• The softer those talks look the more likely that the government will have its majority circumscribed by the hard Brexit-leaning lawmakers.
  — Simon Kennedy, Bloomberg.com, 22 June 2017
• Thirty-six years later Spain is a mature parliamentary monarchy in which the Crown’s role is strictly circumscribed.
  — Ana Palacio, WSJ, 5 Oct. 2017
• At the same time, at least a half-dozen states have enacted laws giving parents more power over which books appear in libraries or circumscribing students’ access to books.
  — Hannah Natanson, Anchorage Daily News, 24 May 2023
• And because mostly white men have decided what ends up in the Times crossword, its content is often circumscribed by the biases of those doing the constructing.
  — Sophia Stewart, The Atlantic, 12 Mar. 2024
• Elderly leaders were acceptable in these roles so long as their power was circumscribed.
  — Rebecca Brannon / Made By History, TIME, 3 July 2024
• The election results will also affect the make-up of the committees, tightly circumscribed by Beijing, which every five years choose the chief executive.
  — The Economist, 21 Nov. 2019
• Hizbut, already banned or circumscribed in some countries, is estimated to have tens of thousands of members in Indonesia.
  — Stephen Wright, The Seattle Times, 19 July 2017
• That these games would be circumscribed by politics was a given from the outset because of regional rivalries.
  — CBS News, 25 Feb. 2018
• State media reports of major events tend to be tightly circumscribed by the Communist leadership.
  — Kwanwoo Jun, WSJ, 2 Dec. 2018
• One of the crucial steps in destroying a democracy and reshaping a society is to capture the referees and circumscribe their power.
  — Brynn Tannehill, The New Republic, 17 Oct. 2022
• The Russians created a similar situation in early 2022, storming across the northern border, occupying villages and small towns, and reaching the ring road that circumscribes Kharkiv.
  — Constant Méheut, New York Times, 12 May 2024

Last Updated: 17 Dec 2024