confine
to enclose within bounds; limit or restrict: She confined her remarks to errors in the report. Confine your efforts to finishing the book.
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.
Usually confines. a boundary or bound; limit; border; frontier.
Often confines. region; territory.
Archaic. confinement.
Obsolete. a place of confinement; prison.
Origin of confine
1Other words for confine
Opposites for confine
Other words from confine
- 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), pre·con·fined, pre·con·fin·ing.
- qua·si-con·fin·ing, adjective
- re·con·fine, verb (used with object), re·con·fined, re·con·fin·ing.
- self-con·fin·ing, adjective
- un·con·fin·a·ble, adjective
- un·con·fin·ing, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use confine in a sentence
A company called Jurassic Quest created a prehistoric zoo of more than 70 animatronic beasts to explore from the confines of your car.
The best things to do — virtually and in person — while social distancing in the D.C. area | Fritz Hahn, Hau Chu | November 12, 2020 | Washington PostFor Cowles and the game’s other actors, that meant recording lines of dialogue — and their many screams — from the confines of their homes.
‘Call of Duty’ voice actors spent the summer on video calls like the rest of us | Mike Hume | November 11, 2020 | Washington PostWhile team success within friendly confines has nosedived, if the trend holds, it won’t be much of a departure for the Big Ten, which opens play Friday.
Home Teams Aren’t Winning As Much In College Football This Season. The Big Ten Should Fit Right In. | Josh Planos | October 21, 2020 | FiveThirtyEightIf it was controlled and kept within the confines of marriage, it could build strong families and, ultimately, a strong nation.
Whether you’re working from home, helping educate kids from the confines of your own walls, or like so many of us, doing both, a new constant that probably isn’t going away is the video call.
The decision to leave the confining comforts of home this past November was “awful,” says Grace.
The Westboro Defectors Speak: Phelps Granddaughters Embrace Tolerance | John Avlon | March 8, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIt is at once confining and infinitely sinuous, so at Biennale-time it abounds with situations I call Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!
To these and the general forms of old English pipes, I purpose confining myself in the present article.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce | E. R. Billings.The veil had slipped and might easily have been mistaken for a ribbon confining the queue at the base of the head.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonWhen a way has been acquired by such use, the law is strict in confining the gainer in the use of it.
Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman | Albert Sidney BollesInstead of confining their action to actual applicants for help, they had to search out cases of nuisance or dangerous disease.
English Poor Law Policy | Sidney WebbA very dense fog enveloped everything, confining the view of surrounding objects to a radius of about fifty yards.
British Dictionary definitions for confine
to keep or close within bounds; limit; restrict
to keep shut in; restrict the free movement of: arthritis confined him to bed
(often plural) a limit; boundary
Origin of confine
1Derived forms of confine
- confinable or confineable, adjective
- confineless, adjective
- confiner, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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