confine

con·fine

Use confine in a sentence

verb

To confine is to impose limits or restrictions, or to prevent someone from leaving.

When you ground your child and don't let him leave his room, this is an example of a situation where you confine your child.
When you limit your paper to arguments in favor of something, this is an example of a situation where you confine your paper to affirmative arguments.

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"confine." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Confine>.

APA Style

confine. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22nd, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Confine

confine

[usually pl.] a boundary or bounded region; border; limit
Old Poet. confinement
Obs. a place of confinement

Origin of confine

Middle English confinies, plural from Old French confins, plural , a border, boundary from Classical Latin confinium (pl. confinia), boundary, limit from confinis, bordering on from com-, with + finis, an end: see finish

intransitive verb

-·fined′, -·fin′ing

Rare to border (on) or be contiguous (with or to another region)

Origin of confine

Fr confiner < the n.

to keep within limits; restrict: to confine a talk to ten minutes
to keep shut up, as in prison, in bed because of illness, indoors, etc.

confine Idioms

be confined

Old-fashioned to be giving birth to a child

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MLA Style

"confine." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Confine>.

APA Style

confine. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22nd, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Confine

confine

transitive verb

con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines

To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit.
To shut or keep in, especially to imprison.
To restrict in movement: The sick child was confined to bed.

Origin of confine

French confiner from Old French from confins boundaries ; see confines .

Related Forms:

con·fin′a·ble con·fine′a·ble
adjective

con·fin′er
noun

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"confine." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Confine>.

APA Style

confine. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22nd, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Confine

Verb

(third-person singular simple present confines, present participle confining, simple past and past participle confined)

To restrict; to keep within bounds; to shut or keep in a limited space or area.
To have a common boundary; to border; to lie contiguous; to touch; followed by on or with.

Noun

(plural confines)