confine

[ kuhn-fahyn kon-fahyn ]

verb (used with object)

, con·fined, con·fin·ing.

1. to enclose within bounds; limit or restrict:

   She confined her remarks to errors in the report. Confine your efforts to finishing the book.

   Synonyms: circumscribe

   Antonyms: free

2. to shut or keep in; prevent from leaving a place because of imprisonment, illness, discipline, etc.:

   For that offense he was confined to quarters for 30 days.

   Antonyms: free

noun

1. Usually confines. a boundary or bound; limit; border; frontier.
2. Often confines. region; territory.
3. Archaic. confinement.
4. Obsolete. a place of confinement; prison.

confine

verb

1. to keep or close within bounds; limit; restrict
2. to keep shut in; restrict the free movement of

   arthritis confined him to bed

noun

1. often plural a limit; boundary

Derived Forms

• ˈconfineless, adjective
• conˈfinable, adjective
• conˈfiner, noun

Other Words From

• con·fina·ble con·finea·ble adjective
• con·fineless adjective
• con·finer noun
• noncon·fining adjective
• precon·fine verb (used with object) preconfined preconfining
• quasi-con·fining adjective
• recon·fine verb (used with object) reconfined reconfining
• self-con·fining adjective
• uncon·fina·ble adjective
• uncon·fining adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of confine¹

1350–1400 for noun; 1515–25 for v.; (noun) Middle English < Middle French confins, confines < Medieval Latin confinia, plural of Latin confinis boundary, border ( con-, fine ² ); (v.) < Middle French confiner, verbal derivative of confins < Latin, as above

Word History and Origins

Origin of confine¹

C16: from Medieval Latin confīnāre from Latin confīnis adjacent, from fīnis end, boundary

Example Sentences

Before Donald Trump became president, tariffs were a topic largely confined to history books.

From Salon

Space studies often emphasised microgravity as the main contributing factor to food's different taste, but the team's findings underscored the impact of confined and isolated environments, Loke said.

From Science Daily

Making it easier to confine homeless and marginalized people is, to say the least, not a new or original idea.

From Salon

But there is a political dimension to what Kapadia is doing here, one that crystallizes at roughly the halfway mark, when the film bursts out of its confines, as do the women.

From Los Angeles Times

I didn’t want to have to become a businessperson, but that is what — without a sugar daddy or a trust fund, and outside the confines of academia — being an artist does to you.

From Salon

Related Words

• constrain
• detain
• hinder
• imprison
• incarcerate
• jail
• restrain
• restrict