Confinement is being kept within limits or shut in. Solitary confinement, close confinement, released from confinement.
Solitary confinement is the most serious form and its psychological effects are well documented and disputed only about their degree. Of animals it means restricted space. The word once meant the period a woman spent in bed before and after childbirth — her confinement — which was standard usage into the twentieth century and now sounds startling. Note confine, confined.
1nounconfinementBeing kept within limits or shut in.
“After weeks of confinement in his small cell, he longed to see the sky.”
2nounperiodThe period around childbirth, in older use.
“In the old novel, the lady stayed in her room during her confinement before the baby came.”
confinement is a state of restriction.
French confinement comes from confiner, from Latin confinis, bordering — con plus finis, a boundary. Define, final and finish come from the same boundary.
French
confinement
English, today
confinement
French confinement. by surface analysis, confine + -ment.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA