Search the Dictionary

That which limits; a restriction; a qualification; a restraining condition, defining circumstance, or qualifying conception; as, limitations of thought. The cause of error is ignorance what restraints and limitations all principles have in regard of the matter whereunto they are applicable. Hooker.

g the idea of variation or departure from some general rule or form, in the way of either restriction or enlargement, according to the circumstances of the case, as in the will of a donor, an agreement between parties, and the like. Bracton.

limiting, or the state of being limited; that which qualifies by limiting; modification; restriction; hence, abatement; diminution; as, to use words without any qualification.

To adjust by rule, method, or established mode; to direct by rule or restriction; to subject to governing principles or laws. The laws which regulate the successions of the seasons. Macaulay. The herdsmen near the frontier adjudicated their own disputes, and regulated their own police. Bancroft.

That which restrains, as a law, a prohibition, or the like; limitation; restriction. For one restraint, lords of the world besides. Milton.

To cause to pass, to evade, offical restrictions; to smuggle; -- said of contraband or dutiable goods. heavy impositions . . . are a strong temptation of running goods. Swift.

atch crew for a boat race; a scratch shot in billiards. [Slang] Scratch race, one without restrictions regarding the entrance of competitors; also, one for which the competitors are chosen by lot.

iam and Prince Henry of Prussia, and so called because these yachts do not conform to the restrictions for the regular classes established by the rules of the International Yacht Racing Union. In yachts of the sonderclass, as prescribed for the season of 1911, the aggregate of the length on water line, extreme beam, a…

s applied also to a person who settles lawfully upon government land under permission and restrictions, before acquiring title. In such a tract, squatters and trespassers were tolerated to an extent now unknown. Macaulay.

Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt; distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in the plural; as, reduced to great straits. For I am in a strait betwixt two. Phil. i. 23. Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever. South. Ulysses made use of…

ear as an evidence of their having contributed. Such solicitation is now subject to legal restriction in various places.