surround
Americanverb (used with object)
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surrounds,
present (3rd person singular)
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surrounded,
past participle, past
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surrounding
present participle
noun
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something that surrounds, as the area, border, etc., around an object or central space.
a tile surround for the shower stall.
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environment or setting.
The designer created a Persian surround for the new restaurant.
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Hunting.
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a means of hunting in which wild animals are encircled and chased into a special spot that makes their escape impossible.
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the act of hunting by this means.
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the location encircled by hunters using this means.
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verb
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to encircle or enclose or cause to be encircled or enclosed
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to deploy forces on all sides of (a place or military formation), so preventing access or retreat
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to exist around
I dislike the people who surround her
noun
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a border, esp the area of uncovered floor between the walls of a room and the carpet or around an opening or panel
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a method of capturing wild beasts by encircling the area in which they are believed to be
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the area so encircled
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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surroundsimple
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surroundssimple
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have surroundedperfect
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has surroundedperfect
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am surroundingprogressive
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are surroundingprogressive
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is surroundingprogressive
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have been surroundingperfect progressive
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has been surroundingperfect progressive
Past
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surroundedsimple
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had surroundedperfect
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was surroundingprogressive
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were surroundingprogressive
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had been surroundingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of surround
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English surounden “to inundate, submerge,” from Anglo-French surounder, Middle French s(o)ronder, from Late Latin superundāre “to overflow,” equivalent to Latin super- super- + undāre “to flood,” derivative of unda “wave” ( see undulate); current spelling by analysis as sur- 1 + round 1 (verb)
Explanation
When you think of the word surround, think of something that's around you on all sides, like the trees that surround you in a forest or the people who surround you on a city street at rush hour. Sometimes surround describes the position of troops that force the enemy to surrender. You can also surround your property with a fence, or surround yourself with positive people. Both of these offer a way to protect or strengthen the thing in the middle — your house or your well-being. In a movie theater that has "surround sound," the audience feels like it is in the middle of the action because of the speakers placed all around the space.
Vocabulary lists containing surround
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Other issues surround the company, including constraints on computing power and tight competition with OpenAI, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Researchers at the LMS, Imperial and UCL wanted to understand where these cells are located in untreated tumors, what distinguishes them and which other cells tend to surround them.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026
Visions of light, fields of talking flowers, moving patterns, and dense waves of dots would surround and consume her.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
But who you surround yourself with is part of who you are, which means staffers can also create problems for the politicians they work for.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2026
Dylan starts to say something more but laughter drowns out his words as Lara and a group of her friends surround our table.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
Nor is he satisfied with regularly televised Oval Office events, where he surrounds himself with administration officials singing hosannas to his greatness.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
Be sure to check out Mendocino Headlands State Park, which nearly surrounds the village, and the Point Mendocino Trail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
The cordon surrounds the scene, which is close to the fishing lake, and two camping tents - one of which is white with a navy blue trim - have been pitched.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
The fairing is the large shell that surrounds a spacecraft at the top of a rocket.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
The paneling that surrounds me is carved with figures of angels and the apostles.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
It’s within this environment that the brand’s new fall/winter 2026 collection begins to slowly present itself, surrounded by the people and places that have increasingly become part of Kiko Kostadinov’s Los Angeles story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Four Marines crouch in the foreground surrounded by the blackened remains of burned trees; in the top two-thirds of the picture the black-and-white smoke of the blast billows upward, beautiful in its destruction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Tung died on Tuesday night surrounded by loved ones, local media reported.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Marsh always assumed that you’d made the decision, or at least within the community of people who also took everything that surrounded music criticism and fandom “too seriously.”
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
She was drifting in a small inlet, surrounded on three sides by land.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
Citi expects companies linked to power generation and data centers to be more affected by the flow of news surrounding the midterm elections than semiconductor and memory stocks.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
The issues surrounding AI have prompted fierce debate - and present a dilemma for many world leaders.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Rather than focusing only on killing cancer cells directly, the strategy is designed to alter the surrounding environment that protects them.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026
Kennedy has challenged the circumstances surrounding the cases, which are the first deaths involving measles reported in the country this year.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026
At selected spots in rural areas, Soviet soldiers began cutting trees, surrounding the clearings with barbed wire.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
