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Glite Dictionary
to limit yourself to

to limit yourself to

4 3.8
To choose only one thing or a few things
  • phrasal verb
: limitarse a
  • I'm just saying that you don't need to limit yourself to peers within your immediate social circle.
  • limit yourself to one

Don't let people limit you to what they think is appropriate for you.

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Examples

  • "In the future, please limit yourself to personal transactions," he says.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Do not limit yourself to one of your own race.

    Academic text (1997)

  • You begin to think about every purchase and limit yourself to what you need.

    Blog text (11)

  • You used to limit yourself to members of the club.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Why limit yourself to downtown?

    Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020)

  • Why limit yourself to one dogma?

    Oppenheimer (2023)

  • Look at your skill set to broaden your options; don't limit yourself to your experience.

    Blog text (28)

  • Don't limit yourself to one or two methods for connecting to educators with similar goals.

    Academic text (2012)

  • And don't limit yourself to prose; if you want to write a poem about it, that's cool.

    Blog text (22)

  • When trying new foods, you should not limit yourself to just pizza or burgers.

Synonyms

to limit
vsto limit yourself to
∞ 2.1

To control how much or how often something happens

is a self-chosen narrowing focusing action on a particular thing
to restrict
vsto limit yourself to
361 3.1

Limit how much people can use or access something

is a voluntary narrowing of actions to a specific thing or set
to tie
vsto limit yourself to
314 4.2

To make someone stay in one place or situation

is self-imposed narrowing of activities to one particular option
to confine
vsto limit yourself to
215 4.2

Keep someone or something within limits, for example in a small space

is a chosen narrowing of personal choices to a specific set
to confine to
vsto limit yourself to
106 4.8

To keep something within set limits, for example in a room or a topic

is a voluntary narrowing of one's actions to a particular thing
to constrain
vsto limit yourself to
64 5.6

To limit what someone can do or how they can act

is a voluntary narrowing of choices rather than being forced

Antonyms

to broaden horizons
5 3.7

To learn new things and try new experiences

How Restricted

to limit yourself to
4 3.8
to stick to
343 3.0

Surface Forms

limit infinitive
limited past
limited past participle
limiting present participle
limits third person singular

Morphology

limit + yourself + to

The phrase is fully compositional: 'limit' means to restrict, 'yourself' marks the reflexive object, and 'to' indicates the target or scope, so a learner who knows the words can infer 'restrict yourself to X'. This structure is a common, cross-linguistic pattern (e.g. Spanish 'limitarse a'), making the meaning predictable for B1 learners.

Etymology

Limit yourself to comes from the image of drawing a small fence or circle around you that keeps you in one area. To limit means to make a line, yourself is you inside, and to points to what you keep, so it means 'stop yourself from trying other things'.