CIRCUMSCRIPTION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does circumscription mean? 

• CIRCUMSCRIPTION (noun)
  The noun CIRCUMSCRIPTION has 1 sense:

1. the act of circumscribing

  Familiarity information: CIRCUMSCRIPTION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIRCUMSCRIPTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of circumscribing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("circumscription" is a kind of...):

confinement; restriction (the act of keeping something within specified bounds (by force if necessary))

Derivation:

circumscribe (restrict or confine within limits)

circumscribe (draw a line around)

circumscribe (to draw a geometric figure around another figure so that the two are in contact but do not intersect)

 Context examples 

Should the throes of change take me in the act of writing it, Hyde will tear it in pieces; but if some time shall have elapsed after I have laid it by, his wonderful selfishness and circumscription to the moment will probably save it once again from the action of his ape-like spite.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It may have some, but not all the strictly defined additional morphologic criteria which are necessary for the diagnosis of medullary breast carcinoma (presence of a diffuse lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate, neoplastic round cells with abundant cytoplasm and vesicular nuclei, complete histological circumscription, and absence of glandular or tubular structures).

(Atypical Medullary Breast Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)