| 释义 |
limitation|lɪmɪˈteɪʃən|
[ad. L. līmitātiōn-em, f. līmitāre to limit. Cf. F. limitation.]
1. The action of limiting (in senses of the vb.); an instance of this.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 70 Þei commaunden þat no man schal preche þe gospel but at here wille & lymytacion. 1483Cath. Angl. 217/1 A Lymytacion, limitacio. 1533More Apol. ix. Wks. 865/2 They..leaue not one man for Goddes parte thys eyghte hundred yeare paste by theyr owne lymitacion. 1542–3Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 20 §1 Their heires inheritable by the limitacion of suche giftes. 1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 76 This absolute limitation and restraint of Satan. 1683Brit. Spec. 63 The Monarch himself must be Judge, and then farewel Limitation. 1720Waterland Eight Serm. 250 It is here, without any restriction or limitation, applied, by the inspired Writer, to our Saviour Christ. 1833H. Martineau Berkeley i. viii. 159 Some objected to this, that mere convertibility was not enough without limitation. 1845Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. in Encycl. Metr. II. 610/1 The proper limitation of mathematical accuracy to things without matter. 1863H. Cox Instit. iii. iii. 623 A fresh limitation of the succession to the throne was made towards the end of the reign of William III.
†b. spec. The action of determining the boundaries of (a country) or the contour of (a figure). Obs.
1677W. Hubbard Narrative ii. 5 Letters Patent granted by the King for the Limitation of Virginia. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. III. 31/2 Limitation we call the determining or fixing the sweeps of all the lines, the projections of the angles..and the depression of every hollow.
†2.
a. An allotted space; the district or circuit of an itinerant officer or preaching friar; the region belonging to a particular nation; fig. one's allotted sphere. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 182 Oo frere grutchiþ aȝens anoþer, and fiȝtiþ wiþ him, whanne he prechiþ treuþe in his lymytacioun. c1386Chaucer Wife's T. 21 The lymytour..seyth his matyns and his hooly thynges As he gooth in his lymytacioun. 1401Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 21 Your limitors..will not suffer one in anothers limitation. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 12620 Whyl thow the holdest by resoun Wyth-Inne thy lymytacioun, Nat to erryn, nyh nor ffer. 1527R. Thorne in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 256 The saide Islands fall all without the limitation of Portingall. 1535Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 27 Auditours..yerely ridinge their seueral circuites and limittacions. 1552B. Gilpin Serm. bef. Edw. VI (1630) 25 Some [pulpits] have not had foure Sermons these fifteene or sixteene yeares, since Friers left their limitations.
†b. An allotted time. Obs.
1607Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 146 You haue stood your Limitation.
3. The condition of being limited; limitedness.
1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxix. §1 As the substance of God is infinite, and hath no kinde of limitation. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 283 Am I your Selfe But as it were in sort, or limitation? 1710Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. §4 The natural dulness and limitation of our faculties. 1755Young Centaur i. Wks. 1757 IV. 123 Through the limitation of the human intellect. 1871R. H. Hutton Ess. I. 109 What seems to us limitation, may be, not limitation, but a mode of divine power. 1875Lyell Princ. Geol. II. iii. xxxviii. 331 The limitation of groups of distinct species to regions separated from the rest of the globe by certain natural barriers. 1880Haughton Phys. Geog. vi. 272 The limitation of special families and sub-orders to special Continents.
4. A point or respect in which something is limited; a limiting provision, rule, or circumstance.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. 12 The lymitacyon expressed in the statute of Westmynster. 1590H. Swinburne Testaments 134 This limitation is suspected of some not to bee sounde. 1642Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 295 That limitation therefore of after settling is a meere tautology. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. x. 33 Let him mince it as well as he can with mental limitations and restrictions. 1667Pepys Diary 10 Apr., So as that he that goes there may go with limitations and rules to follow. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. viii. §1 (1734) 193, I shall have little further to add, but some Limitations..with regard to particular Cases. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 63 This limitation was made by parliament, that [etc.]. 1855Prescott Philip II, I. ii. xi. 261 Most of the provinces coupled their acquiescence with limitations which rendered it of little worth. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. ii. 53 He was heir to the earldom of Tyrone according to the limitations of the patent.
5. Law.
a. The statutory specification of a period, or the period specified by statute, within which an action must be brought. Statute of Limitations: any of the statutes (now esp. 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 27) fixing a period of limitation for actions of certain kinds.
b. The specification of a period or the period specified for the continuance of an estate, or the operation of a law.
c. The settlement of an estate by a special provision or with a special modification or modifications; the modification or provision itself.
a.1641Termes de la Ley 196 Limitation is an assignement of a space or time, within which hee that will sue..ought to prove, that he or his ancestor was seised of the thing demanded, or otherwise he shall not maintaine his suit or action. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. 178 It is enacted by the statute of limitations, 21 Jac. I. c. 16. that no entry shall be made by any man upon lands, unless within twenty years after his right shall accrue. Ibid. 188 In all these possessory actions there is a time of limitation settled, beyond which no man shall avail himself of the possession of himself or his ancestors. Ibid. 250 Sixty years..is the longest period of limitation assigned by the statute of Henry VIII. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) V. 313 If it be a legal debt, this Court being applied to for a discovery, will not prevent the statute of limitations from running. 1852Ld. Palmerston in Croker Papers 17 June (1884) I. i. 18 There is..no statute of limitation as to epistolary debts.
b.1767Blackstone Comm. II. 155 When an estate is so expressly confined and limited by the words of it's creation, that it cannot endure for any longer time than till the contingency happens upon which the estate is to fail, this is denominated a limitation. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 495 The future limitation being only for the life of a person in esse. 1821J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. iii. (1871) 245 The limitation of the act was to three years, or the end of the next general assembly.
c.1767Blackstone Comm. II. 193 A tenancy in common may..be created by express limitation in a deed. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 291 By the limitation of the will, he was to make a grant of the rent. 1827Jarman Powell's Devises (ed. 3) II. 73 The..failure of the objects of the several limitations. 1868E. Edwards Ralegh I. iv. 66 Most grants of this kind were attended by conditions and limitations.
6. = limit 1 and 2. Also pl. bounds, boundaries.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccxxxviii. 344 They of the..marches and lymitacions of the realme of Castell, Came..and made homage. 1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 1 To the conservation of the body of mankynde within the lymitation of helth. 1602W. Fulbecke Pandectes 61 Numa Pompilius..did cause as well a publik perambulation to be made throughout his whole kingdom as priuate limitations & bounds betwixt partie & partie. 1616Capt. J. Smith Descr. New Engl. 23 The Gouernment, Religion, Territories and Limitations. 1815Jane Austen Emma ii. viii. 193 She knew the limitations of her own powers too well to attempt more than she could perform with credit. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 319 The supposed exceptions..do not come within the reason and limitation of the rule. 1864Bowen Logic i. 25 When the use of words is not checked by a frequent recurrence in thought to the precise limitations of their meaning. |