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Limit vs Prevent - What's the difference?

limit | prevent |

In transitive terms the difference between limit and prevent

is that limit is to restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound while prevent is to stop; to keep (from happening).

As a noun limit

is a restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go.

As an adjective limit

is being a fixed limit game.

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

    * * * ----

    prevent

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To stop; to keep (from happening).
    • I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.}}
  • * 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :
    • ‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent !’
  • (obsolete) To come before; to precede.
  • * Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15
    • We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
  • * Book of Common Prayer
    • We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
  • * Prior
    • Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.
  • (obsolete) To outdo, surpass.
  • * 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i:
    • With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.
  • (obsolete) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • their ready guilt preventing thy commands

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * preventative * prevention * preventive