Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of confining or the state of being confined.
  • noun Lying-in.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being confined; restraint within limits; any restraint of liberty by force or other obstacle or necessity; hence, imprisonment.
  • noun Restraint from going abroad by sickness, specifically by childbirth; the lying-in of a woman: as, her approaching confinement.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Restraint within limits; imprisonment; any restraint of liberty; seclusion.
  • noun Restraint within doors by sickness, esp. that caused by childbirth; lying-in.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the act of confining or the state of being confined
  • noun lying-in

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of keeping something within specified bounds (by force if necessary)
  • noun concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child
  • noun the act of restraining of a person's liberty by confining them
  • noun the state of being confined

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

confine +‎ -ment

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Examples

Comments

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  • 19th century Victorian era term for pregnancy

    February 15, 2008

  • Followed by an upsitting.

    September 9, 2010