Literary notes about ambit (AI summary)
The word "ambit" in literature is used to denote boundaries in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Historically, it has been defined in a very concrete way—as the circumference or perimeter of an object or area [1, 2]—yet its usage extends far beyond physical borders. Authors apply it to describe the realm of influence or activity, such as the area encompassed by one’s authority or ambition [3, 4], and even the region affected by a dramatic event or natural force [5, 6]. In some poetic passages the term evokes the merging of spatial limits with emotional or philosophical dimensions, highlighting the wide reach or the strict confines of a subject [7, 8, 9].
- — N. outline, circumference; perimeter, periphery, ambit, circuit, lines tournure[obs3], contour, profile, silhouette; bounds; coast line.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - AMBIT of a geometrical figure is the perimeter, or the line, or sum or all the lines, by which it is bounded.
— from The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by W. H. (William Henry) Smyth - The purpose was manifestly to make the ambit of review under the Act at least as wide as at common law.
— from Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft DisasterC.A. 95/81 by New Zealand. Court of Appeal - The hour was late; her home, as you know, lies at some distance—though doubtless within the ambit of your authority.
— from Lady Good-for-Nothing: A Man's Portrait of a Woman by Arthur Quiller-Couch - He had invited Destiny to sweep him up in her reaping, by placing himself in the ambit of her scythe; but the sharp reaping-hook had passed him by.
— from The Judgment House by Gilbert Parker - The whole surface of my ambit was spread out like a miniature map in my eye, and continues to be.
— from Confessions of Boyhood by John Albee - For a great circle of the Earth is to the ambit of the Primum Mobile less than a furlong to the whole Earth.
— from On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the eartha new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments - Within the ambit of his wanderings he could not have selected a more secluded spot.
— from The Story of a Hare by J. C. (John Coulson) Tregarthen - [208] -pools within its ambit, which stands upon the ancient road and dominates two valleys.
— from Lore of Proserpine by Maurice Hewlett
