CONFINEMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does confinement mean? 

• CONFINEMENT (noun)
  The noun CONFINEMENT has 4 senses:

1. concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child

2. the act of restraining of a person's liberty by confining them

3. the state of being confined

4. the act of keeping something within specified bounds (by force if necessary)

  Familiarity information: CONFINEMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONFINEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

childbed; confinement; labor; labour; lying-in; parturiency; travail

Context example:

she was in labor for six hours

Hypernyms ("confinement" is a kind of...):

birth; birthing; giving birth; parturition (the process of giving birth)

Meronyms (parts of "confinement"):

uterine contraction (a rhythmic tightening in labor of the upper uterine musculature that contracts the size of the uterus and pushes the fetus toward the birth canal)

effacement (shortening of the uterine cervix and thinning of its walls as it is dilated during labor)

asynclitism; obliquity (the presentation during labor of the head of the fetus at an abnormal angle)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "confinement"):

premature labor; premature labour (labor beginning prior to the 37th week of gestation)

Holonyms ("confinement" is a part of...):

gestation; maternity; pregnancy (the state of being pregnant; the period from conception to birth when a woman carries a developing fetus in her uterus)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of restraining of a person's liberty by confining them

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("confinement" is a kind of...):

restraint (the act of controlling by restraining someone or something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "confinement"):

imprisonment; internment (the act of confining someone in a prison (or as if in a prison))

house arrest (confinement to your own home)

commitment; committal; consignment (the official act of consigning a person to confinement (as in a prison or mental hospital))

Derivation:

confine (deprive of freedom; take into confinement)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The state of being confined

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

he was held in confinement

Hypernyms ("confinement" is a kind of...):

subjection; subjugation (forced submission to control by others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "confinement"):

constraint; restraint (the state of being physically constrained)

captivity; immurement; imprisonment; incarceration (the state of being imprisoned)

custody; detainment; detention; hold (a state of being confined (usually for a short time))

solitary; solitary confinement (confinement of a prisoner in isolation from other prisoners)

Derivation:

confine (close in)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of keeping something within specified bounds (by force if necessary)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

confinement; restriction

Context example:

the restriction of the infection to a focal area

Hypernyms ("confinement" is a kind of...):

restraint (the act of controlling by restraining someone or something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "confinement"):

classification (restriction imposed by the government on documents or weapons that are available only to certain authorized people)

specification; stipulation (a restriction that is insisted upon as a condition for an agreement)

circumscription (the act of circumscribing)

constraint (the act of constraining; the threat or use of force to control the thoughts or behavior of others)

 Context examples 

He had not been made for the close confinement wild beasts endure at the hands of men.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Not all the time, too much confinement makes you nervous, and then you are unfitted for everything.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But first they resolved to sell the goods in the ship, and then go to Madagascar for recruits, several among them having died since my confinement.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Confinement of an individual to bed for therapeutic reasons.

(Bed Rest, NCI Thesaurus)

If not, she is undoubtedly in some sort of confinement and unable to write to Miss Dobney or her other friends.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

As it was certain, however, that somebody was coming, Bingley instantly prevailed on Miss Bennet to avoid the confinement of such an intrusion, and walk away with him into the shrubbery.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She was kept in very close confinement, ma'am: people even for some years was not absolutely certain of her existence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She was confined for some days to the house; but never had any confinement been less irksome.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I am considering your sister's health, said he, addressing himself to Susan, which I think the confinement of Portsmouth unfavourable to.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)