circumscribe

Perhaps anyone could guess as much, but what a layman might never know without Stanford’s book is that our busy roads severely circumscribe the territory cougars can roam, leading to isolation and inbreeding.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024

The charter provision does not appear to circumscribe that investigative authority for the department’s highest-ranking officer, the police chief.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 13, 2023

If successful, its stem-cell-derived therapy would eliminate the pin-pricks and insulin injections that circumscribe the lives of the 1.5 million Americans with Type 1 diabetes.

From New York Times ● Aug. 9, 2022

The depression may circumscribe his behavior, but don’t let it dictate yours.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 21, 2021

The luck of Robinson Crusoe was not more fortunate than ours, although he had not the cut of frost nor the long night, nor the torment of bears to circumscribe his adventures.

From My Attainment of the Pole by Cook, Frederick A.

It’s one thing to confer maximalist, seemingly boundless authority on the executive branch and on the president that, by definition, circumscribes the judicial role.

From Slate ● Dec. 19, 2025

But Wednesday’s ruling seriously circumscribes the instances where that can actually happen, justices said.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 8, 2022

My problem is when I feel like other people’s perceptions and ideas of who I am and who they want me to be circumscribes my life and is limiting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2021

A tall windbreak, white as a glacial crevasse, circumscribes the front door, shrouding it from view.

From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2020

We pulled onto 1-465, the beltway that circumscribes Indianapolis.

From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green

The authors of the study estimated that their circumscribed findings extrapolated countywide could represent up to $114 million in losses over a month of sustained enforcement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

“From the start, Humphrey’s was tethered to a highly circumscribed and almost fictional view of the FTC’s role,” Chief Justice John Roberts writes for the majority.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

Yet the pardon power is circumscribed: It applies only to criminal “offenses,” excluding impeachments.

From Slate ● May 26, 2026

As per the country's own observations, the fund had limited ability to do something about the loan, and was "circumscribed by procedural and technical formalities".

From BBC ● May 14, 2025

While it may have been unthinkable for most to extend their social circles to include black colleagues, within the circumscribed atmosphere of the office, they were cordial, even friendly.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

That precedent set a “great level of deference” as the standard of review for deployments that have since mushroomed across the country, circumscribing debate even in courts where it is not legally binding.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025

When, however, I search for “War on Terror, civilians killed” without even circumscribing the time range, I get about 850,000 results.

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2024

"But that does not mean that Greece is to blame, it is just circumscribing specific areas of responsibility," he added.

From Reuters ● Jun. 15, 2023

Her own use of traditional forms and allusions – Ashbery, Whitman and Sexton appear, as do Borges, Homer and Lorca – are means of expanding rather than circumscribing her practice.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 2, 2020

“With every passing day, Watergate was circumscribing our freedom of action,” Kissinger, the one person unscathed by scandal, later said.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin