confiner

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English

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Etymology 1

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From confine (verb) +‎ -er.

Noun

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confiner (plural confiners)

  1. One who, or that which, limits or restrains.
    • 1794, Jonathan Scott, transl., Ferishta’s History of Dekkan from the First Mahummedan Conquests[1], volume I, Shrewsbury, page 311:
      [] as he attended him through the streets, the common people, and even women, uttered loud exclamations of abuse against him, calling him the murderer of syeds, and confiner of Chaund Sultana.
    • 1816, Barbara Hofland, chapter 2, in The Affectionate Brothers[2], volume 2, London: A.K. Newman, pages 40–41:
      [] I hope to gain a friend in you, and that will surely repay, a thousand times, the exertions I have at length happily made to terminate your captivity, which has, I know, been continued, rather from the obstinacy and idleness of your confiners, than any remaining malice against your country, or suspicions of yourself.
    • 1876, C. Henri Leonard, chapter 11, in A Manual of Bandaging Adapted for Self-Instruction[3], Detroit: Daily Post, page 122:
      The narrow adhesive strips [] are then applied spirally about the leg, as confiners.
    • 2016, “Last Chance for Animals’ Investigation Leads to Animal Cruelty Charges for Marineland Canada,” Press Release dated 4 December, 2016,[4]
      The undercover investigation exposed inadequate treatment, housing, and care of marine mammals at Marineland, the world’s largest confiner of beluga whales.

Etymology 2

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From confine (noun) +‎ -er.

Noun

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confiner (plural confiners) (obsolete)

  1. A person who lives on the confines, boundary or edge; a neighbour.
    • 1599, Samuel Daniel, The Civil Wars of England, Book 1, Stanza 18, in Poeticall Essayes, London: Simon Waterson, p. 4,[5]
      So did the worldes proud Mistres Rome at first
      Striue with a hard beginning, warr’d with need;
      Forcing her strong Confiners to the worst,
      And in her bloud her greatnes first did breed:
    • 1624, Henry Wotton, editor, The Elements of Architecture, collected by Henry Wotton Knight, from the Best Authors and Examples[6], London, Part 2, p. 88:
      [] though Gladnesse, and Griefe, be opposites in Nature; yet they are such Neighbours and Confiners in Arte, that the least touch of a Pensill, will translate a Crying, into a Laughing Face []
    • 1629, Thomas Hobbes, transl., Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre written by Thucydides the Sonne of Olorus[7], London: Henry Seile, Book 3, p. 197:
      For being Confiners on the Aetolians, and vsing the same manner of arming, it was thought it would bee a matter of great vtility in the Warre, to haue them in their Armie; for that they knew their manner of fight, and were acquainted with the Country.
    • 1683, Thomas Browne, Certain Miscellany Tracts[8], London: Charles Mearn, Tract 12, page 187:
      [] he would soon endeavour to have Ports upon that Sea, as not wanting Materials for Shipping. And [] may be a terrour unto the confiners on that Sea, and to Nations which now conceive themselves safe from such an Enemy.
    • 1697, Thomas d’Urfey, The Intrigues of Versailles, London: F. Saunders et al., Act IV, Scene 2, p. ,[9]
      [] darkness is naturally a confiner of fancy; and my Muse has taught me just as people do Starlings: I sing always best when I’ve least light []
  2. A person who lives within the confines; an inhabitant.
  3. A prisoner incarcerated for a set term.
    • 1819, Joseph John Gurney, Notes on a Visit Made to Some of the Prisons in Scotland and the North of England in Company with Elizabeth Fry, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, p. 64,[10]
      Lancaster Castle [] contains two classes of prisoners; first, the untried, and those sentenced to death or transportation; and secondly, confiners,—persons sent hither for terms of imprisonment and labour.

French

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kɔ̃.fi.ne/
  • Rhymes: -e
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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confiner

  1. to confine
  2. to border (on)

Conjugation

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Further reading

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