confinement
(kənˈfaɪnmənt)
[a. F. confinement (16th c. in Littré), f. confiner: see -ment.]
1. The action of confining, or (more usually) the fact or condition of being confined, shut up, or kept in one place; imprisonment.
(Usually with objective genitive.)
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 152 That darkenesse of earth, which was their naturall confinement. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iv. vi. (1715) 208 And so loose their Souls from their Confinements. 1727 Swift Gulliver iii. ii. 187 During my confinement for want of cloathes. 1772 Junius Lett. lxviii. 337 The confinement of his body within four walls. 1816 Southey Poet's Pilgr. i. 26 As the fierce tiger in confinement lies. 1834 Good Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 190 It is rather the confinement and the want of usual exercise. |
2. Restriction, limitation (to certain conditions).
| 1678 Littleton Lat. & Eng. Dict., A confinement, limitatio, restrictio. 1691 Ray Creation Pref. (1704) 9 After a short Confinement to one sort of Dish. 1728 R. Morris Ess. Anc. Archit. 33 To prescribe Rules of Confinement, as to the minuter Proportions. 1789 Bentham Princ. Legisl. xvii. §16 Confinement to spare diet. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. 97 Confinement to the same stock, a breeding from animals of the same blood. |
† b. A restriction or limit. Obs. rare.
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. vii. 30 The..question..which were the places of the right and the schismaticall temple, the confinements of the whole religion. |
† 3. An obligation, a personal tie. Obs.
| 1654 Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 660, I had nobler confinements than profit to keep me in her Father's Court. Ibid. 693 A Prince, who by many confinements merited my Service. |
4. spec. The being in child-bed; child-birth, delivery, accouchement. (The ordinary term for this in colloq. use: see confine v. 6. The ME. equivalent was Our Lady's bands, bonds, or bends: see band1 1 c, bend1 1 d, bond1 1 c.)
| 1774 Mrs. Delany Corr. Ser. ii. (1862) II. 15, I feel uncomfortable not to be able to come to her when she is under her confinement. 1811 Park in Medico-Chirurg. Trans. II. 298 Mrs. S. whom I was engaged to attend in her first confinement. 1861 F. Nightingale Nursing 41 Women who had difficult confinements. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 211 Just recovered from her confinement. |