a. and sb. [ad. L. līmitāris, f. līmes LIMIT: see -ARY2.] A. adj.
1. Subject to limits; limited in action, range, etc. † Const. to.
1620. Brathwait, Five Senses, iv. 46. Delights momentany and limitarie to an instant, may for the present yeeld a satisfaction.
1673. Dryden, State Innocence, III. i. Wks. 1808, V. 143. Let me with Him contend, On whom your limitary powers depend.
1727. C. Pitt, Callimachus’ Hymn to Jupiter, 119. What no inferior Limitary King Could in a length of Years to Ripeness bring.
1814. Scott, Ess. Drama, etc. (1874), 143. The synod of Olympus … were themselves but limitary deities.
1822–56. De Quincey, Confess. (1862), 169. The poor limitary creature calling himself a man of the world.
1838. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xxix. (1866), II. 107. We cannot, indeed, rise superior to our limitary nature.
1850. Fraser’s Mag., XLI. 328. The Stuarts looked abroad for models of kingcraft, and repined at their limitary right-divine.
b. Of a friar: Licensed to beg within certain limits. (Cf. LIMITER 1.)
1830. Scott, Demonol., vi. 175. Chaucer … ascribes the exile of the fairies … to the warmth and zeal of the devotion of the limitary friars.
2. Of or pertaining to a limit or boundary; situate on the boundary. † Of a sentinel: Stationed on the boundary.
In quot. 1667 the sense is doubtful: it may be 1.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. v. 125. All the former were limitary places in the tribe of Asher. Ibid. (a. 1661), Worthies, Cumberland, I. (1662), 216. This County (because a Limitary) did abound with Fortifications.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 969. Then when I am thy captive talk of chaines, Proud limitarie cherub!
1731. Bailey, vol. II. Limitary, belonging to the limits or bounds.
1819. Banquet, 57. Visit your limitary huts, and see Where cleanliness reside, and industry.
1885. W. T. Watkin, in Academy, 1 Aug., 77/3. We have another limitary mark on a centurial stone at Manchester.
3. Serving as a limit or boundary; limiting, confining, containing. Const. of.
1807. Anna Seward, in Athenæum, March (1895), 282/1. Where the horizon’s limitary line Meets the gloom’d sea.
1822. B. Cornwall, Dram. Scenes, Julian the Apostate, ii. A limitary power, which strikes and circumscribes the soul.
1845. Trench, Huls. Lect., Ser. I. v. 98. Refusing the Scriptures as … authoritative in and limitary of the Truth.
1847. W. R. Hamilton, Lett. to De Morgan, Ess. Analytic Logical Forms, 3. The once formidable array of limitary rules has vanished. The science now shines out in the true character of beauty.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 451/2. The hepatic cells are enclosed in a limitary membrane.
1899. J. Hutchinson, Archives Surg., X. 151. There was deep erosion of the nails … presenting an abrupt limitary margin.
B. sb. = LIMITER 1. (Cf. A. 1 b.)
a. 1662. Heylin, Laud (1668), 210. Great were the Sums of Money which the Piety of the Design, and the Diligence of their Limitaries brought in from their several Walks.
