1. Restrict or confine within limits
   "our actions are circumscribed by our biology, personality, and by the social and cultural context into which we are born";
   - limit, confine to
    
2. Draw a line around
   "another circle is circumscribed about the square"
    
3. (geometry) to draw a geometric figure around another figure so that the two are in contact but do not intersect
   "He circumscribed a circle around the pentagon"

Derived forms: circumscribed, circumscribes, circumscribing

Type of: decrease, delineate, describe, draw, lessen, line, minify, trace

Encyclopedia: Circumscribe