confine oneself

verb

To limit or restrict themself to a certain thing or place.

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Meanings

verbconfine oneself (third-person singular simple present confines oneself, present participle confining oneself, simple past and past participle confined oneself)

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

  1. oftenreflexiveTo limit or restrict themself to a certain thing or place.

    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.

    1 more example

    There was no limit on drinks, and the guy next to me tucked away a few G and Ts. I confined myself to a pleasant Brewdog Ale and a glass of slightly insipid wine.

    2025 June 11, Christian Wolmar, “First Class delights with an occasional pang of hunger”, in RAIL, number 1037, page 34
Cite this entry
APA

confine oneself. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/confine%20oneself

MLA

“confine oneself.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/confine%20oneself. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “confine oneself,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/confine%20oneself.

Source: confine oneself on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.