circumscriptio, ōnis, f. circumscribo. * Prop. (acc. to circumscribo, I.), an encircling, and (concrete) a circle: ex circumscriptione excedere, Cic. Phil. 8, 8, 23.

— (Acc. to circumscribo, II. A.) A boundary, limit, outline, contour, circuit, compass (most freq. in Cic.): terrae situm, formam, circumscriptionem, Cic. Tusc. 1, 20, 45: aeternitas, quam nulla temporis circumscriptio metiebatur, id. N. D. 1, 9, 21: corporeae forma circumscriptionis, Arn. 2, 93; 3, 135.

— In rhet. A period: verborum, Cic. Or. 61, 204: ipsa enim natura verborum quādam circumscriptione comprehendit concluditque sententiam, id. Brut. 8, 34; cf. Quint. 9, 4, 124.

— A compendious statement, summing up, Quint. 9, 3, 91.

— A figure of speech, prob. the limitation of a question by the removal of a circumstance in dispute, Quint. 9, 1, 35 Halm (dub.; cf. id. 9, 4, 9).

— (Acc. to circumscribo, II. C.) A deceiving, cheating, overreaching, defrauding (esp. in pecuniary transactions, and by judicial artifice, by pettifogging): adulescentium, Cic. Off. 3, 15, 61: praediorum proscriptiones cum mulierculis apertā circumscriptione fecisti, id. Fl. 30, 74; Sen. Ira, 3, 2, 1.

—In plur., Cic. Clu. 16, 46; Sen. Ira, 2, 9, 4.

—In gen., of deception, deceit, fraud, Sen. Ep. 82, 22; Tert. Pat. 5.