1. Not free to move about
   "The confined animals paced in their small enclosures"
    
2. Being in captivity
   "The confined animals paced in their cages";
   - captive, imprisoned, jailed
    
3. Not invading healthy tissue
   "The tumour was confined to a small area of the lung"

1. Place limits on (extent, amount or access)
   "Use is confined to medical professionals"; "She felt confined by social expectations";
   - restrict, trammel, limit, bound, throttle
    
2. To close within bounds, or otherwise limit or deprive of free movement
   "They confined the animals to their pens";
   - restrain, hold, constrain
    
3. Prevent from leaving or from being removed
   "The zookeepers confined the dangerous animals to their enclosures"
    
4. Deprive of freedom; take into confinement
   "The suspect was confined to a holding cell";
   - detain
    
5. Close in
   "darkness confined him";
   - enclose, hold in

See also: claustrophobic, close, confining, homebound, housebound, pent, restricted, shut up, shut-in, snowbound, stormbound, unfree, weather-bound

Type of: act, bear, carry, contain, disable, disenable [archaic], hold, hold back, incapacitate, keep, keep back, move, restrain

Antonym: free, invasive, unconfined

Encyclopedia: Confined