# confine

Pronunciation: say "kuhn-FYN" /kənˈfaɪn/

## Verb

1. To restrict someone or something to a particular area or scope; to keep within certain bounds.
   - Simple: To keep someone or something inside a certain area or limit.
   - _The judge confined her questions to events from that night._
   - _New regulations confine heavy trucks to a handful of designated routes._

## Noun

Pronunciation: say "KON-fyn" US /ˈkɑnfaɪn/, UK /ˈkɒnfaɪn/

2. A boundary or limit marking the edge of an area or range.
   - Simple: A line or limit that marks where something ends.
   - _Commercial fishing boats may not operate within the confines of the marine reserve._
   - _He spent his entire career within the confines of one small department._
3. The state of being imprisoned or kept shut away. *(literary)*
   - Simple: The state of being kept as a prisoner or shut in.
   - _The poem ends with the captive knight released at last from close confine._
   - _Through all her long confine, she sang of open fields and summer sky._

## Verb

4. To have a common boundary with something; to border on it. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To touch or share a border with another place.
   - _Two kingdoms that confine upon each other must keep careful watch on their borders._
   - _The duke's park confines upon the common fields to the east._

## Origin

From Middle French confiner, from confins, going back through Medieval Latin confines to Latin confinium (a border), from confīnis.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/confine (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).