confine
See also: confiné
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French confiner, from confins, from Medieval Latin confines, from Latin confinium, from confīnis.
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
confine (third-person singular simple present confines, present participle confining, simple past and past participle confined)
- (obsolete) To have a common boundary with; to border on. [16th–19th c.]
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- Where your gloomy bounds / Confine with heaven
- 1717, John Dryden, “Book XII”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 731548838:
- Betwixt heaven and earth and skies there stands a place / Confining on all three.
- 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford 2008, p. 467:
- ‘Why, Sir, to be sure, such parts of Sclavonia as confine with Germany, will borrow German words; and such parts as confine with Tartary will borrow Tartar words.’
- (transitive) To restrict (someone or something) to a particular scope or area; to keep in or within certain bounds. [from 17th c.]
- c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:
- Now let not nature's hand / Keep the wild flood confined! let order die!
- 1680, John Dryden, Ovid’s Epistles translated by several hands, London: Jacob Tonson, Preface,[1]
- He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and the slavery of rhyme.
TranslationsEdit
to restrict; to keep within bounds
|
detain — see detain
lock up — see lock up
arrest — see arrest
imprison — see imprison
incarcerate — see incarcerate
NounEdit
confine (plural confines)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
limit
|
FrenchEdit
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /kɔ̃.fin/
- Homophones: confinent, confines
VerbEdit
confine
- inflection of confiner:
ItalianEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
confine m (plural confini)
SynonymsEdit
Related termsEdit
LatinEdit
AdjectiveEdit
cōnfīne
PortugueseEdit
VerbEdit
confine
- inflection of confinar:
SpanishEdit
VerbEdit
confine
- inflection of confinar: