confine
part of speech
verb (confine, confines, confined, confining); noun (confines — see the separate entry)
meaning for a pupil
1) To keep someone or something inside a small or closed space: «The dog was confined to the kitchen». tree →
2) To keep something within a limit and not let it spread or go beyond: «Please confine your answer to 100 words». tree →
3) Be confined to bed, a wheelchair or the house: to have to stay there because of illness or injury. tree →
4) (old) To be confined: to be in bed to give birth to a baby. tree →
5) To hold something tightly in place, such as tying hair back. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and safety texts: a fire was «confined to one room», a virus «confined to one area». In school instructions: «confine your answer to the question». In stories, prisoners or animals are confined in cells or cages. Phrases: «confined to», «confine yourself to», «confined space», «confined to bed».
examples
- The fire was confined to the kitchen and did not spread. tree →
- Grandad was confined to bed with flu for a week. tree →
- Please confine your talk to five minutes. tree →
- The tiger paced in its confined enclosure. tree →
- Cats hate being confined in a box. tree →
- Firefighters train for rescues in confined spaces. tree →
- The flooding was confined to the low part of town. tree →
- Aphrodite is also frequently represented in the act of confining her dripping locks in a knot, whilst her attendant nymphs envelop her in a gauzy veil. tree →
note
Usually used in the passive: «be confined to». Stress on the second syllable: con-FINE. The noun «confinement» means being kept somewhere (solitary confinement in prison). «Confine» is formal; in everyday talk people say «keep in», «shut in» or «limit to».
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «confine» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.