confinement
/kənˈfʌɪnmənt
/noun [mass noun]
1The action of confining or state of being confined: he was immediately released from his confinement...
- We do not rely primarily on preventive confinement - the incarceration of a person in anticipation of what he will do in the future.
- In fact, seldom will confinement, detention be the better course to adopt.
- When a person has been duly convicted of a crime carrying a jail term, confinement is automatically authorized.
Synonyms
imprisonment, internment, incarceration, custody, captivity, detention, restraint, arrest, house arrest
literary thraldom, thrall
archaic duress, durance
penning, caging, locking up, walling in/up, enclosure, encirclement, surrounding, encompassment;
quarantine;
North American corralling
rare immurement
2 dated The condition of being in childbirth: the pros and cons of home versus hospital confinement [count noun]: my grandmother’s last six confinements...
- A confinement of six weeks used to apply to new mothers and I am a firm believer in the benefits of this enforced rest.
- Application for maternity benefits must be made at least eight weeks before confinement, or within six months of the birth of the child.
- Mother had given her a beautifully embroidered pocket, that Mama had been sewing during her long confinement before the birth of Thomas and Lettie.
Synonyms
labour, (expected) delivery, giving birth, birthing;
birth, childbirth, nativity
technical parturition
archaic lying-in, accouchement, childbed, travail