confine

5 definitions • 8 examples

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).

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.

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.

to keep someone or something within limits:

The animals were confined in a large pen.

Harris does not confine her stage work to Broadway.

If something is confined to a particular group of people, it exists only among them:

Cancer is not confined to old people.