Library / English Dictionary

CONFINE

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Place limits on (extent or amount or access)

Example:

limit the time you can spend with your friends

Synonyms:

bound; confine; limit; restrict; throttle; trammel

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "confine"):

scant; skimp (limit in quality or quantity)

cumber; encumber; restrain (restrict (someone or something) so as to make free movement difficult)

delimit; delimitate; demarcate (set, mark, or draw the boundaries of something)

clamp down; crack down (repress or suppress (something regarded as undesirable))

constrain; stiffen; tighten; tighten up (severely restrict in scope or extent)

cramp; halter; hamper; strangle (prevent the progress or free movement of)

mark off; mark out (set boundaries to and delimit)

draw a line; draw the line (reasonably object (to) or set a limit (on))

gate (restrict (school boys') movement to the dormitory or campus as a means of punishment)

tie (limit or restrict to)

reduce; tighten (narrow or limit)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

To close within bounds, or otherwise limit or deprive of free movement

Example:

The terrorists held the journalists for ransom

Synonyms:

confine; constrain; hold; restrain

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "confine" is one way to...):

disable; disenable; incapacitate (make unable to perform a certain action)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "confine"):

bind; tie down; tie up; truss (secure with or as if with ropes)

fetter; shackle (restrain with fetters)

enchain (restrain or bind with chains)

pinion; shackle (bind the arms of)

impound; pound (place or shut up in a pound)

pound; pound up (shut up or confine in any enclosure or within any bounds or limits)

fold; pen up (confine in a fold, like sheep)

ground (confine or restrict to the ground)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They want to confine the prisoners

Sense 3

Meaning:

Prevent from leaving or from being removed

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "confine" is one way to...):

hold back; keep; keep back; restrain (prevent the action or expression of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "confine"):

lock in; seal in (close with or as if with a tight seal)

lock; lock away; lock in; lock up; put away; shut away; shut up (place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape)

coop in; coop up (confine in or as if in a coop)

closet (confine to a small space, as for intensive work)

cabin (confine to a small space, such as a cabin)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Deprive of freedom; take into confinement

Synonyms:

confine; detain

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "confine"):

keep in (cause to stay indoors)

pin down; trap (place in a confining or embarrassing position)

cage; cage in (confine in a cage)

imprison (confine as if in a prison)

bind over (order a defendant to be placed in custody pending the outcome of a proceedings against him or her)

intern (deprive of freedom)

gaol; immure; imprison; incarcerate; jail; jug; lag; put away; put behind bars; remand (lock up or confine, in or as in a jail)

straiten (squeeze together)

keep (hold and prevent from leaving)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to confine the prisoners

Antonym:

free (grant freedom to; free from confinement)

Derivation:

confinement (the act of restraining of a person's liberty by confining them)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Close in

Example:

darkness enclosed him

Synonyms:

confine; enclose; hold in

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "confine" is one way to...):

bear; carry; contain; hold (contain or hold; have within)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "confine"):

border; bound (form the boundary of; be contiguous to)

embank (enclose with banks, as for support or protection)

rail; rail in (enclose with rails)

box in; box up (enclose or confine as if in a box)

frame (enclose in a frame, as of a picture)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

confinement (the state of being confined)

Credits

 Context examples: 

An irrational fear of being in a confined space.

(Claustrophobia, NCI Thesaurus)

For now, DFT2 appears to be confined to a peninsula in Tasmania’s south-east.

(Human anti-cancer drugs could help treat transmissible cancers in Tasmanian devils, University of Cambridge)

A paraganglioma that is confined to the site of origin, without metastatic potential.

(Benign Paraganglioma, NCI Thesaurus)

The officer said, “I must be confined till he could receive orders from court, for which he would write immediately, and hoped to receive an answer in a fortnight.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Disease confined to one nodal group or location defines stage I. Disease limited to one side of the diaphragm, (the muscle separating the chest from the abdomen), defines stage II.

(Ann Arbor Lymphoma Staging System, NCI Thesaurus)

It is usually solitary and confined to a single lobular unit.

(Atypical ductal breast hyperplasia, NCI Thesaurus)

A composite pheochromocytoma that is confined to the adrenal gland and does not have any metastatic potential.

(Benign Adrenal Gland Composite Pheochromocytoma, NCI Thesaurus)

A sporadic or familial pheochromocytoma that is confined to the adrenal gland and does not have any metastatic potential.

(Benign Adrenal Gland Pheochromocytoma, NCI Thesaurus)

An area intended to confine animals.

(Animal Enclosure, NCI Thesaurus)

To ensure consistent lighting, they confined imaging to between noon and 2 p.m. local Mars time each day.

(Curiosity Mars Rover Snaps Its Highest-Resolution Panorama Yet, NASA)