CONFINE

restrict, trammel, limit, bound, confine, throttle

(verb) place limits on (extent or amount or access); “restrict the use of this parking lot”; “limit the time you can spend with your friends”

restrain, confine, hold, constrain

(verb) to close within bounds, or otherwise limit or deprive of free movement; “This holds the local until the express passengers change trains”; “About a dozen animals were held inside the stockade”; “The illegal immigrants were held at a detention center”; “The terrorists held the journalists for ransom”

confine

(verb) prevent from leaving or from being removed

confine, detain

(verb) deprive of freedom; take into confinement

enclose, hold in, confine

(verb) close in; “darkness enclosed him”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

confine (third-person singular simple present confines, present participle confining, simple past and past participle confined)

(transitive) To restrict; to keep within bounds; to shut or keep in a limited space or area.

To have a common boundary; to border; to lie contiguous; to touch; followed by on or with.

Noun

confine (plural confines)

(mostly, in the plural) A boundary or limit.

Synonyms

• (limit): border, bound, limit

Source: Wiktionary


Con*fine", v. t. [imp. & p.p. Confined; p.pr. & vb.n. Confining.] Etym: [F. confiner to border upon, LL. confinare to set bounds to; con- + finis boundary, end. See Final, Finish.]

Definition: To restrain within limits; to restrict; to limit; to bound; to shut up; to inclose; to keep close. Now let not nature's hand Keep the wild flood confined! let order die! Shak. He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and the slavery of rhyme. Dryden. To be confined, to be in childbed.

Syn.

– To bound; limit; restrain; imprison; immure; inclose; circumscribe; restrict.

Con"fine or

Definition: (v. i. To have a common boundary; to border; to lie contiguous; to touch; -- followed by on or with. [Obs.] Where your g;oomy bounds Confine with heaven. Milton. Beywixt hezven and earth and skies there stands a place. Confuining on all three. Dryden.

Con"fine, n.

1. Common boundary; border; limit; -- used chiefly in the plural. Events that came to pass within the confines of Judea. Locke. And now in little space The confines met of emryrean heaven, And of this world. Milton. On the confines of the city and the Temple. Macaulay.

2. Apartment; place of restraint; prison. [Obs.] Confines, wards, and dungeons. Shak. The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine. Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

25 November 2024

ONCHOCERCIASIS

(noun) infestation with slender threadlike roundworms (filaria) deposited under the skin by the bite of black fleas; when the eyes are involved it can result in blindness; common in Africa and tropical America


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Coffee Trivia

The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.

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