confineverb
uk/kənˈfaɪn/us/kənˈfaɪn/C2 [ T ] to limit an activity, person, or problem in some way:
Let's confine our discussion to the matter in question, please!
Please confine your use of the phone to business calls.
By closing the infected farms we're hoping to confine the disease to the north of the region (= stop it from spreading to other areas).
C2 [ T usually passive ] to keep someone closed in a place, often by force:
The hostages had been confined for so long that they couldn't cope with the outside world.
be confined to somewhere/sth
to exist only in a particular area or group of people:
We know that the illness is not confined to any one group in society.
This attitude seems to be confined to the verty wealthy.
More examples
- Men have always played an active part in leading worship while women have been confined to more passive roles.
- The campaign aims to dispel the prejudice that AIDS is confined to the homosexual community.
- Let's confine our remarks to the facts, shall we?
- We confined our research to families with only one autistic child.
- It was terrible for our research to be confined by lack of money.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Limiting and restricting
- box sb in
- chain
- circumscribe
- clamp down on sth
- clampdown
- curtail
- damage limitation
- debilitate
- delimit
- delimitation
- hamstring
- hedge
- infringe
- muzzle
- non-proliferation
- qualification
- ration
- rationing
- restrain
- stabilizer
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Putting people in prison
Enclosing, surrounding and immersing