confine
/ˈkɑnfaɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.92 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To restrict (someone or something) to a particular scope or area; to keep in or within certain bounds.
Transitive verb
noun
Example Sentences
- "Where your gloomy bounds / Confine with heaven"
- "Betwixt heaven and earth and skies there stands a place / Confining on all three."
- "‘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.’"
- "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."
- "Here perhaps one of you might interrupt me and say, 'But what is it that you do, Socrates? How is it that you have been misrepresented like this? Surely all this talk and gossip about you would never have arisen if you had confined yourself to ordinary activities, but only if your behaviour was abnormal. Give us the explanation, if you do not want us to draw our own conclusions.'"
Etymology
From Middle French confiner, from confins, from Medieval Latin confines, from Latin confinium, from confīnis.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɑnfaɪn/
- British English: /ˈkɒnfaɪn/