# limit

Pronunciation: say "LIM-it" /ˈlɪmɪt/

## Verb

1. To restrict something or keep it from going beyond a certain point or boundary.
   - Simple: To stop something from going past a fixed point or amount.
   - _Doctors advised him to limit his salt intake._
   - _The company limited refunds to purchases made within thirty days._

## Noun

2. A restriction or boundary beyond which someone or something may not go.
   - Simple: The point or amount that you are not allowed to go past.
   - _The city imposed a strict limit on water usage during the drought._
   - _Borrowers often hit their credit limits before payday._
3. The furthest point, border, or edge that something reaches.
   - Simple: The farthest edge or point that something reaches.
   - _They explored to the outer limit of the mapped territory._
   - _The empire stretched to the limits of the known world._
4. In mathematics, the value that a sequence of numbers gets closer and closer to as it continues.
   - Simple: In math, the value that a list of numbers gets closer and closer to.
   - _The sequence approaches a limit of zero as n grows large._
   - _The sequence 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, and so on has a limit of 1._
6. A form of poker played with fixed betting amounts set in advance rather than chosen freely.
   - Simple: A kind of poker where each bet must be a fixed amount, set in advance for each round.
   - _Many cardrooms still offer limit alongside other betting formats._
   - _She switched to limit to reduce her swings._
7. A person who is exasperating, intolerable, or astonishing, used informally. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A person who is incredibly annoying, shocking, or hard to believe.
   - _Oh, that woman is the limit. She complained about everything all evening._
   - _After three late nights in a row, he decided his roommate was simply the limit._
8. A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic that marks one thing off from another.
   - Simple: A feature that makes something what it is and sets it apart from other things.

## Adjective

5. Of a poker game, having bets restricted to fixed, predetermined amounts.
   - Simple: Describing a poker game where the bets can only be a fixed, set amount.
   - _Most beginners start with limit hold'em before trying riskier formats._
   - _The tournament featured a limit structure throughout the early rounds._

## Noun

9. The point that ends a period of time, and so the period or full extent itself. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The end of a stretch of time, or the whole stretch itself.
10. The space or thing that is marked out by its boundaries. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An area or object marked out by its borders.

## Verb

11. To beg, or to carry out one's duties, within a fixed region. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To beg or carry out duties only inside a set area.

## Other meanings

- (verb) In mathematics, to have a limit that falls within a particular set.
- (noun) In mathematics, any of several broader versions of the idea of a limit, such as the limit of a diagram in category theory.
- (noun) Ellipsis of harmonic limit.
- (noun) In handicap cycling races, the group of riders who are sent off first, ahead of everyone else.

## Origin

**Meanings 2–10** — The root is Latin "līmes", a path or balk running between fields, which came to mean a boundary, border, or limit; it passed through Old French "limit" into Middle English "limit". The word took the place of the native Old English "ġemǣre".
**Meanings 1, 11** — Latin "līmitō" ("to bound, limit, fix, determine"), a verb built on "līmes", gave Old French "limiter", which English took over as Middle English "limiten".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/limit (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).