Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Inscribe

1. To write or engrave; to mark down as something to be read; to imprint. Inscribe a verse on this relenting stone. (Pope)

2. To mark with letters, charakters, or words. O let thy once lov'd friend inscribe thy stone. (Pope)

3. To assign or address to; to commend to by a shot address; to dedicate informally; as, to inscribe an ode to a friend.

4. To imprint deeply; to impress; to stamp; as, to inscribe a sentence on the memory.

5. (Science: geometry) to draw within so as to meet yet not cut the boundaries.

a line is inscribed in a circle, or in a sphere, when its two ends are in the circumference of the circle, or in the surface of the sphere. A triangle is inscribed in another triangle, when the three angles of the former are severally on the three sides of the latter. A circle is inscribed in a polygon, when it touches each side of the polygon. A sphere is inscribed in a polyhedron, when the sphere touches each boundary plane of the polyhedron. The latter figure in each case is circumscribed about the former.

Origin: L. Inscribere. See 1st in-, and scribe.