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Limit vs Diminish - What's the difference?

limit | diminish |

As a noun limit

is limit (restriction).

As a verb diminish is

to make smaller.

limit

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl), from (etyl), from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.
    • There are several existing limits to executive power.
    Two drinks is my limit tonight.
  • * 1839 , (Charles Dickens), Nicholas Nickleby , chapter 21:
    • It is the conductor which communicates to the inhabitants of regions beyond its limit ,
  • * 1922 , , Ulysses , episode 17:
    • Ever he would wander, selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets, astronomical waifs and strays, to the extreme boundary of space,
  • * 2012 March 6, Dan McCrum, Nicole Bullock and Guy Chazan, Financial Times , “Utility buyout loses power in shale gas revolution”:
    • At the time, there seemed to be no limit to the size of ever-larger private equity deals, with banks falling over each other to arrange financing on generous terms and to invest money from their own private equity arms.
  • (mathematics) A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge).
    • The sequence of reciprocals has zero as its limit.
  • (mathematics) Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit.
    • Category theory defines a very general concept of limit.
  • (category theory) Given diagram F'' : ''J'' → ''C'', a cone (''L'', ''φ'') from ''L'' ∈ Ob(''C'') to ''F'' is the ''limit'' of ''F'' if it has the universal property that for any other cone (''N'', ''ψ'') from ''N'' ∈ Ob(''C'') to ''F'' there is a unique morphism ''u'' : ''N'' → ''L'' such that for all ''X'' ∈ Ob(''J ), \phi_X \circ u = \psi_X .
  • (poker) Short for fixed limit.
  • The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge.
    • the limit of a walk, of a town, or of a country
  • * Alexander Pope
    • As eager of the chase, the maid / Beyond the forest's verdant limits strayed.
  • (obsolete) The space or thing defined by limits.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The archdeacon hath divided it / Into three limits very equally.
  • (obsolete) That which terminates a period of time; hence, the period itself; the full time or extent.
  • * Shakespeare
    • the dateless limit of thy dear exile
  • * Shakespeare
    • The limit of your lives is out.
  • (obsolete) A restriction; a check or curb; a hindrance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.
  • (logic, metaphysics) A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic.
    • Synonyms
    * (restriction) bound, boundary, limitation, restriction
    Derived terms
    * age limit * central limit theorem * city limits * elastic limit * in the limit * limit down * limit up * limitation * limitless * lower limit * outer limit * the sky is the limit * to the limit * time limit * unlimited * upper limit
    Descendants
    * German: (l)

    See also

    * bound * function

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (poker) Being a fixed limit game.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) ; see noun.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound.
  • *
    • [The Chinese government] has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.
  • (mathematics) To have a limit in a particular set.
  • (obsolete) To beg, or to exercise functions, within a certain limited region.
    • Synonyms
    * (restrict) cap; restrict; withstrain

    External links

    * * * ----

    diminish

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • To make smaller.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14
    • , author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins, volume=188, issue=2, page=23 , date=2012-12-21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys , passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}
  • To become smaller.
  • * {{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.
  • To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
    • This doth nothing diminish their opinion.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15
    • I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
  • * Milton
    • O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.
  • To taper.
  • To disappear gradually.
  • To take away; to subtract.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2
    • Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.
  • (music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.

    • Derived terms

    * law of diminishing returns