surround

present singular third person surrounds · participle present surrounding · participle past surrounded · past surrounded

1. transitiveTo encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions.

   and this way they get rid of those grand and stubborn opinions that surround them.

   2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 230c

   4 more examples

   The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

   1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick

   It took a long time for the place to warm up and to counteract the cold and enable their fingers to cope with the delicate task of moulding, the men would often surround themselves with blocks of iron heated in the furnace.

   1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 342

   Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.

   1963, Margery Allingham, “Miss Thyrza’s Chair”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 41

   The superficial fascia surrounds the body and includes subcutaneous fat; the deep fascia surrounds the musculoskeletal system; the meningeal fascia surrounds the nervous system; the visceral fascia surrounds body cavities and organs.

   2018 November 8, Dr. Melina Jampolis, “The real science behind fascia ailments”, in CNN

   Synonyms: bound

2. transitiveTo enclose or confine something on all sides so as to prevent escape.

   The lions surrounded the deer herd so they had no way to escape.

   1 more example

   They surrounded each other in the classroom and started trading hits.

3. obsoletetransitiveTo pass around; to travel about; to circumnavigate.

   to surround the world

   1 more example

   Unfitting it vvas, that the body of that vvorthy Patriarch [Joseph] (to vvhom all the land belonged by promiſe) ſhould ſteale into that Countrey in a clandeſtine vvay, and privately enter in at the poſtern door, rather let it ſolemnly ſurround the Countrey, and be brought in at the broad gates. Thus the corps of men of quality, though the Chancell-door be nearer, are borne through the porch and middle-alley to the place of their interment.

   1650, Thomas Fuller, “The Description of the Tribe of Benjamin”, in A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament Acted thereon, London: […] J. F. for John Williams […], →OCLC, book II, paragraph 16, pages 247–248

plural surrounds

1. UKAnything, such as a fence or border, that surrounds something.

   1 more example

   He drifted through the room, avoiding the furniture by instinct, closed the door that led to the passage, and only then flicked on his flashlight. It swept around the room, picking out a desk, a telephone, a wall of bookshelves, and a deep armchair, and finally settled on a handsome fireplace with a large surround of red brick.

   1972, Frederick Forsyth, The Odessa File, Viking, SBN 670-52042-x, chapter 15, page 283