[Vocabulary] Meaning of 'Delineated'?

[AppleFanboy]

I want to ask the meaning(close to dictionary meaning) of 'delineated' used in the sentence.


I asked in another forum
(https://www.englishforums.com/English/GrammarQuestion/bwlqhc/post.htm)
but the answer was that I can't always find a dictionary definition worded exactly fit to specific context. And for non-native like me, it's really difficult to find a connection in meaning.


Einstein famously said that if given an hour to solve a problem, he'd spend 55 minutes defining it and 5 minutes on the solution. That's "exactly opposite of what the vast majority of executives today would do," writes Jeffrey Phillips in the blog Innovate on Purpose. "Most of them would simply define a solution, implement it and have 15 minutes to spare for checking email."


The problem, he argues, is that we've become too efficient. Too much of our time is optimized and streamlined, carefully delineated for this meeting or that conference call, with no time for just... thinking.

Thank you so much in advance.

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

Please tell us what dictionary definitions you have found and in which dictionaries.

 

[AppleFanboy]

The first meaning is to carefully describe something and the second is to make, mark, form an outline or border of.

And the definition is from FreeDictionary. For me both meaning don't seem to fit into the sentence.

 

[bhaisahab]

I'd say it's a poor use of the word.

 

[AppleFanboy]

The article was posted from Harvard Business report a few years ago but somehow the article is now deleted.


I got an answer from another forum and what he answered was that they used the word in a sense of a border.


Delineate have a meaning of 'make an border of'


so 11am-12pm conference call
12pm-1pm meeting
1pm-2pm lunch time
2pm-so on


12pm 1pm 2pm are the borders.


What do you think?

 

[bhaisahab]

I can see what they mean, but I think it's the wrong word to use in the context. I would use "allocated to" instead of "delineated for".

 

[Matthew Wai]

May I use 'earmarked for' instead of 'delineated for'?

 

[tedmc]

Delineate is normally used for something physical, for example a boundary. I have not heard of it being used with time.
Time can be scheduled/ apportioned/ allocated/set/arranged, etc