ENVIRON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does environ mean? 

• ENVIRON (verb)
  The verb ENVIRON has 1 sense:

1. extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle

  Familiarity information: ENVIRON used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENVIRON (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they environ    ... he / she / it environs   
Past simple: environed   
Past participle: environed   
-ing form: environing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

border; environ; ring; skirt; surround

Context example:

The forest surrounds my property

Hypernyms (to "environ" is one way to...):

adjoin; contact; meet; touch (be in direct physical contact with; make contact)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "environ"):

fringe (decorate with or as if with a surrounding fringe)

gird; girdle (put a girdle on or around)

cloister (surround with a cloister)

close in; enclose; inclose; shut in (surround completely)

hem in (surround in a restrictive manner)

cloister (surround with a cloister, as of a garden)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

 Context examples 

They were in the environs of Mansfield long before the usual dinner-time, and as they approached the beloved place, the hearts of both sisters sank a little.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He himself slept peacefully and snored aloud, yet my heart was sore for him, wicked as he was, to think on the dark perils that environed and the shameful gibbet that awaited him.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

But my toils now drew near a close, and in two months from this time I reached the environs of Geneva.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Catherine was all eager delight—her eyes were here, there, everywhere, as they approached its fine and striking environs, and afterwards drove through those streets which conducted them to the hotel.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The want of proper families in the place, and the conviction that none beyond the place and its immediate environs could be tempted to attend, were mentioned; but he was not satisfied.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Of the geese outside the side-gate who come waddling after me with their long necks stretched out when I go that way, I dream at night: as a man environed by wild beasts might dream of lions.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The scientists looked at the growth and survival of trees that sprouted from parent trees and grew up in crowded environs, compared to trees from seeds that were widely transported across the forest by animals.

(Overhunting of large animals has catastrophic effects on trees, NSF)

During all my first sleep, I was following the windings of an unknown road; total obscurity environed me; rain pelted me; I was burdened with the charge of a little child: a very small creature, too young and feeble to walk, and which shivered in my cold arms, and wailed piteously in my ear.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The rooms were shut up, the lodgers almost all gone, scarcely any family but of the residents left; and, as there is nothing to admire in the buildings themselves, the remarkable situation of the town, the principal street almost hurrying into the water, the walk to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant little bay, which, in the season, is animated with bathing machines and company; the Cobb itself, its old wonders and new improvements, with the very beautiful line of cliffs stretching out to the east of the town, are what the stranger's eye will seek; and a very strange stranger it must be, who does not see charms in the immediate environs of Lyme, to make him wish to know it better.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Gardiner was surprised and concerned; but as they were now approaching the scene of her former pleasures, every idea gave way to the charm of recollection; and she was too much engaged in pointing out to her husband all the interesting spots in its environs to think of anything else.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)