Definition: confine

Search dictionary for

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

confine
     v 1: restrict or confine, as to area, extent, time, etc. [syn: limit,
           circumscribe]
     2: place limits on; "restrict the use of this parking lot"
        [syn: restrict, restrain, trammel, limit, bound,
         throttle]
     3: prevent from leaving or from being removed
     4: close in or confine [syn: enclose, hold in]
     5: deprive of freedom; take into confinement [syn: detain]
        [ant: free]
     6: to close within bounds, limit or hold back from movement;
        "This holds the local until the express passengers change
        trains"; "About a dozen animals were held inside the
        stockade"; "The illegal immigrants were held at a
        detention center"; "The terrorists held the journalists
        for ransom" [syn: restrain, hold]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Confine \Con"fine\ (? or ?); 277), v. i.
   To have a common boundary; to border; to lie contiguous; to
   touch; -- followed by on or with. [Obs.]

         Where your gloomy bounds Confine with heaven. --Milton.

         Bewixt heaven and earth and skies there stands a place.
         Confining on all three.                  --Dryden.
Confine \Con"fine\, n.
   1. Common boundary; border; limit; -- used chiefly in the
      plural.

            Events that came to pass within the confines of
            Judea.                                --Locke.

            And now in little space The confines met of empyrean
            heaven, And of this world.            --Milton.

            On the confines of the city and the Temple.
                                                  --Macaulay.

   2. Apartment; place of restraint; prison. [Obs.]

            Confines, wards, and dungeons.        --Shak.

            The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his
            confine.                              --Shak.
Confine \Con*fine"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Confined; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Confining.] [F. confiner to border upon, LL.
   confinare to set bounds to; con- + finis boundary, end. See
   Final, Finish.]
   To restrain within limits; to restrict; to limit; to bound;
   to shut up; to inclose; to keep close.

         Now let not nature's hand Keep the wild flood confined!
         let order die!                           --Shak.

         He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and
         the slavery of rhyme.                    --Dryden.

   To be confined, to be in childbed.

   Syn: To bound; limit; restrain; imprison; immure; inclose;
        circumscribe; restrict.