ambit|ˈæmbɪt|[ad.L. ambit-us a going round, a compass;f.amb- about + -itus going,f.ī-re to go.]1.A circuit, compass, or circumference.1597J. KingJonah (1864) 210The very ambit of their walls and turrets.1655Oughtred in RigaudCorr.Sci.Men (1841) I. 83The area of the whole circle is equal to the half ambite multiplied by the radius.1686GoadCelest. Bodies i. iii. 8Prodigious Hailstones, whose ambit reaches five, six, seven Inches.1713DerhamPhys.-Theol. 43[The earth's]Ambit therefore is 24930 Miles.1753ChambersCycl.Suppl.s.v.,A particular enquiry concerning the Ambit or circumference of antient Rome.1794T. TaylorPausanias II. 38The ambit of each of the parts above the prothysis is thirty-two feet.2.esp.A space surrounding a house, castle, town, etc.; the precincts, liberties, ‘verge.’1398TrevisaBarth. De P.R. xix. cxxix. (1495) 938Ambitus is a space bytwene place and hous of neighbours of two fote brode and an halfe ordeyned for a waye.1753ChambersCycl.Supp.s.v.,It was frequent to inscribe the Ambit on it[a saint's tomb], that it might be known how far its sanctity extended.1818HallamMid. Ages (1872) II. 428Within the verge or ambit of the king's presence.3.The confines, bounds, limits of a district.1845StephenLaws ofEng.II. 745Districts lying within the parochial ambit.1851Sir F. PalgraveNorm.&Eng.I. 240Within the ambit of the ancient kingdom of Burgundy.1876K. DigbyRealProp.iv. §1. 178Whose tenements are not within the ambit of the manor.4.fig.Extent, compass, sphere, of actions, words, thoughts, etc.1691WoodAth.Oxon.II. col. 107His great parts did not live within a small ambit.1859Sat.Rev.19 Nov. 615/1The ambit of words which a language possesses.1882Times 10 Apr. 7/1Misconception as to the ambit of this legislation.