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confines

   Also found in: Idioms, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.
con·fine  (kn-fn)
v. con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines
v.tr.
1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit.
2. To shut or keep in, especially to imprison.
3. To restrict in movement: The sick child was confined to bed.
v.intr. Archaic
To border.
n. (knfn)
1. confines
a. The limits of a space or area; the borders: within the confines of one county.
b. Restraining elements: wanted to escape the confines of corporate politics.
c. Purview; scope: a theory that is well within the confines of science.
2.
a. Archaic A restriction.
b. Obsolete A prison.

[French confiner, from Old French, from confins, boundaries, ultimately from Latin cnfne, from neuter of cnfnis, adjoining : com-, com- + fnis, border.]

con·fina·ble, con·finea·ble adj.
con·finer n.
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.confines - a bounded scope; "he stayed within the confines of the city"
ambit, range, scope, reach, compass, orbit - an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control: "the range of a supersonic jet"; "a piano has a greater range than the human voice"; "the ambit of municipal legislation"; "within the compass of this article"; "within the scope of an investigation"; "outside the reach of the law"; "in the political orbit of a world power"
plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one
Translations
confines [ˈkɔnfaɪnz] nplconfines mpl
confines [ˈkɔnfaɪnz] nplconfins mpl, bornes fpl
confines [ˈkɔnfaɪnz] confine nplGrenzen pl;
(of situation) → Rahmen m
confines [ˈkɔnfaɪnz] nplconfini mpl


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb.
We now had but to pass through the balance of the Band-lu territory and that of the Kro-lu to be within the confines of her own land; but that meant traversing thirty-five miles of hostile country filled with every imaginable terror, and possibly many beyond the powers of imagination.
This view of the necessity of a large stock of the same species for its preservation, explains, I believe, some singular facts in nature, such as that of very rare plants being sometimes extremely abundant in the few spots where they do occur; and that of some social plants being social, that is, abounding in individuals, even on the extreme confines of their range.
 
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