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limit

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limit¹

  • /ˈlɪm.ɪt/
  • /ˈlɪm.ɪʈ/ South Asia
  • /lɪmʈ/ South Asia, colloquial

Rhymes with -ɪmɪt

Where it comes from

From Middle English limit, from Old French limit, from oblique stem of Latin līmes, līmit- (“a cross-path or balk between fields, hence a boundary, boundary line or wall, any path or road, border, limit”). Displaced native Old English ġemǣre. Doublet of limes.

noun limits

  1. A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go or proceed. There are several existing limits to executive power.
  2. 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). The sequence of reciprocals has zero as its limit.
  3. Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit. Category theory defines a very general concept of limit.
  4. The cone of a diagram through which any other cone of that same diagram can factor uniquely.
  5. Fixed limit.
  6. The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge. the limit of a walk, of a town, or of a country
  7. obsolete The space or thing defined by limits. The archdeacon hath divided it / Into three limits very equally.
  8. obsolete That terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent. the dateless limit of thy dear exile
  9. obsolete A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance. I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.
  10. A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic.
  11. The first group of riders to depart in a handicap race.
  12. colloquial A person who is exasperating, intolerable, astounding, etc. Englehorn looked at his employer in incredulous admiration. ‘You’re the limit,’ he declared.
  13. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of harmonic limit.harmonic limit

Similar: bound, boundary, limitation, restriction, threshold, rim

adjective

  1. not comparable Being a fixed limit game.

limit²

  • /ˈlɪm.ɪt/
  • /ˈlɪm.ɪʈ/ South Asia
  • /lɪmʈ/ South Asia, colloquial

Rhymes with -ɪmɪt

Where it comes from

From Middle English limiten, from Old French limiter, from Latin līmitō (“to bound, limit, fix, determine”), from līmes; see noun.

verb limits · limiting · limited

  1. transitive To restrict; to circumscribe; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound, to set boundaries. We need to limit the power of the executive.
  2. intransitive To have a limit in a particular set. The sequence limits on the point a.
  3. obsolete To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region. a limiting friar

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