bracketed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bracket.

   The editor bracketed the doubtful dates in the old manuscript.

   Sprinters were bracketed by qualifying time for the morning heats.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. It is the simple past (the editor bracketed the dates) and the past participle after have or be (the dates were bracketed). The participle carries every sense of the verb. It can be mechanical, as in a shelf bracketed to a wall, or figurative: rivals bracketed together in one category, or an objection bracketed, meaning set aside.

2. 2
   adjective

   Enclosed within brackets in a text, marking the content as parenthetical or optional.

   The bracketed material was clearly the author's later insertion.

   Readers can skip the bracketed notes without losing the argument.

   Similarparenthetical, parenthesized

3. 3
   adjective

   Having brackets as constituent parts; containing bracket marks within it.

   Mathematicians simplify bracketed equations from the innermost group outward.

   The bracketed formula nests several layers of grouping.

   Similarparenthesized

   Note

   Here the brackets sit inside the thing described, not around it. A bracketed equation is built from grouped terms, often nested several layers deep, so the word describes structure rather than position. Contrast the "enclosed" meaning, where a phrase or note is itself set inside brackets. To tell them apart, ask whether the brackets belong to the thing or surround it. Neither meaning takes more or most.

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