Confine

Confine is a verb with meanings centered on boundaries and restriction. It commonly means to keep someone or something within fixed limits or to enclose them physically in a space. It can also mean to restrict movement, activity, or scope, often temporarily. For example, prisoners are confined to their cells, and a study may be confined to data from a specific period.

As a noun, the word appears as confines, referring to the outer edges or limits of a place or domain. The phrase within the confines of is used to describe being inside those boundaries, as in within the confines of the law or within the confines of a budget.

Origin and related forms: Confine comes from Old French confiner, from Latin finis, meaning end or boundary. The related noun confinement denotes the act or state of being confined, while confined space is a standard term in safety contexts.

Usage notes: The verb is typically transitive and often pairs with to or within to indicate the target of restriction (confine to a room, confine to a region, confine attention to a topic). It can be used in legal, medical, security, and administrative language, where it conveys deliberate limitation or enclosure. In everyday usage, it can carry a neutral, descriptive sense or imply enforcement or constraint. Confined and confinement are common derivatives that express the resulting state rather than the action itself.