confine

Etymology

From Middle French confiner, from confins, from Medieval Latin confines, from Latin confinium, from confīnis.

Pronunciation

• (verb) enPR: kənfīnʹ, IPA^(key): /kənˈfaɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (noun)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnfaɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • (US) enPR: känʹfīn, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnfaɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪn

Verb

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

1. (obsolete) To have a common boundary with; to border on. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Where your gloomy bounds / Confine with heaven

   • 1717, John Dryden, “Book XII”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Betwixt heaven and earth and skies there stands a place / Confining on all three.

   • 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 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.’

2. (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 (date written), 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, [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,

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

Noun

confine (plural confines)

1. (chiefly in the plural) A boundary or limit.
2. (poetic) Confinement, imprisonment.
   • a. 1917, anonymous, “Lord Bateman” (folk song) as published in Bertrand Harris Bronson (1959) The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, vol. 1, p. 419:

     She says for you to bring her a slice of cake,
     A bottle of the best wine,
     And not to forget the fair young lady
     That did release you from close confine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.fin/
• Homophones: confinent, confines

Verb

confine

1. inflection of confiner:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Verb

confine

1. inflection of confinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Etymology

From Latin cōnfīnis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konˈfi.ne/
• Rhymes: -ine
• Hyphenation: con‧fì‧ne

Noun

confine m (plural confini)

1. border, frontier
2. boundary

Adjective

cōnfīne

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of cōnfīnis

Verb

confine

1. inflection of confinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Verb

confine

1. inflection of confinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative