inscribe
/ɪnˈskrʌɪb
/verb [with object]
1Write or carve (words or symbols) on something, especially as a formal or permanent record: his name was inscribed on the new silver trophy...
- He inscribed the word ‘boring’ across his recently written notes.
- These were one liners written by groups of five poets who would each secretly inscribe a word on a slip of paper.
- On their leaves he has inscribed words from Scottish ghost stories.
1.1Mark (a surface or object) with characters: the memorial is inscribed with ten names (as adjective inscribed) an inscribed watch...
- Thousands of bones and tortoise shells were discovered there which had been inscribed with ancient Chinese characters.
- He describes the frame's edges being inscribed with Japanese characters and expresses the wish to translate them.
- The watches are inscribed with serial numbers.
1.2Write a dedication to someone in (a book): he inscribed the first copy ‘To my dearest grandmother’...
- And our prize books were duly inscribed copies of the following three.
- Mailer, disappointed to find that Buckley had apparently neglected to inscribe the book, promptly flipped through the index to see whether he had been mentioned.
- The book is inscribed at the front as belonging to a Mrs Janet Maule and is dated 25 June, 1701, although recipes have been added over a number of years.
Synonyms
dedicate, address, name, sign
1.3 archaic Enter the name of (someone) on a list or in a book.Their names were inscribed in the book of enrolment....
- Our names will be inscribed in the books of ages!
- ‘We inscribe them in the book of the saints, and establish that in all the church they be devoutly honoured among the saints,’ the Pope said in Spanish.
2 Geometry Draw (a figure) within another so that their boundaries touch but do not intersect: a regular polygon inscribed in a circle...Compare with circumscribe.
- It involves the solution of polygons given certain sides and angles between them, their mensuration, division by diagonals, circumscribing polygons around circles and inscribing polygons in circles.
- Ptolemy calculated chords by first inscribing regular polygons of 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 sides in a circle.
- This he obtained by circumscribing and inscribing a circle with regular polygons having 96 sides.
3 (usually as adjective inscribed) British Issue (loan stock) in the form of shares whose holders are listed in a register rather than issued with certificates: inscribed stock...
- I think there is a Queensland case - Mr Keane might be able to find it - a Full Court of Queensland case involving gift duty on a gift of Commonwealth inscribed stock.
Derivatives
inscribable
/ adjective ...- Then the hexagon is inscribable in a circle if and only if the three pairs of opposite sides define isosceles trapezoids.
- The new sequence is still inscribable in the same circle and with the same area.
- All Archimedean solids are inscribable in a sphere.
inscriber
- The inscribers of Carlow will not be carving a new name on the Conlon Cup this year.
- Rather, he is a writer-down of things: a recorder of thoughts and observations, an inscriber of lists and memoranda.
- ‘G. F. Laughter 1896,’ etched in a dugway in what is now Canyonlands National Park, offers little but the name of an inscriber who may have been a sheepherder.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin inscribere, from in- 'into' + scribere 'write'.
scripture from Middle English:
Latin scribere ‘to write’ is the source of scripture, literally ‘writings’, of scribe (Middle English) and inscribe (Late Middle English); script (Late Middle English) ‘something written’ and scribble (Late Middle English) ‘little writing’.