confine

present singular third person confines · participle present confining · participle past confined · past confined

1. obsoleteTo have a common boundary with; to border on.First known use 16th–19th c.

   Where your gloomy bounds / Confine with heaven

   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

   2 more examples

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

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

   ‘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.’

   1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 467

2. transitiveTo restrict (someone or something) to a particular scope or area; to keep in or within certain bounds.First known use 17th c.

   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.

   2 more examples

   Now let not nature's hand / Keep the wild flood confined! let order die!

   c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   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.'

   1993, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant, “Justice and Duty (i): Socrates Speaks at his Trial: the Apology”, in The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin Classics), revised edition, London; New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 41

   Synonyms: pen, hem in, incarcerate

plural confines

1. in pluralA boundary or limit.

   Synonyms: border, bound, limit

2. poeticConfinement, imprisonment.

   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.

   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