Verb

(determin)

To set the limits of.

* Bible, Acts xvii. 26

[God] hath determined the times before appointed.

* Francis Bacon

The knowledge of men hitherto hath been determined by the view or sight.

To ascertain definitely; to figure out.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine . The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.}}

To fix the form or character of; to shape; to prescribe imperatively; to regulate; to settle.

* J. Edwards

The character of the soul is determined by the character of its God.

* W. Black

something divinely beautiful that at some time or other might influence or even determine her course of life

To fix the course of; to impel and direct; with a remoter object preceded by to .

Someone else's will determined me to this course.

To bring to a conclusion, as a question or controversy; to settle authoritative or judicial sentence; to decide.

The court has determined the cause.

To resolve on; to have a fixed intention of; also, to cause to come to a conclusion or decision; to lead.

The news of his father's illness determined him to depart immediately.

(logic) To define or limit by adding a differentia.

(obsolete) To bring to an end; to finish.

* Shakespeare

Now, where is he that will not stay so long / Till his friend sickness hath determined me?

Verb

(defin)

To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.

* Sir (Isaac Newton)

Ringsvery distinct and well defined .

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston

, title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}

(obsolete) To settle, decide (an argument etc.).

* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , IV.3:

These warlike Champions, all in armour shine, / Assembled were in field the chalenge to define .

To express the essential nature of something.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=

, volume=101, issue=3, page=178, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Crinkly Curves , passage=Cantor defined a one-to-one correspondence between the points of the square and the points of the line segment. Every point in the square was associated with a single point in the segment; every point in the segment was matched with a unique point in the square.}}

To state the meaning of a word, phrase, sign, or symbol.

To describe, explain, or make definite and clear.

To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=(Jan Sapp)

, volume=100, issue=2, page=164, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Race Finished , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?}}

(mathematics) To establish the referent of a term or notation.