confine or an animal to

confine (someone or something) to (someone or something)

1. To restrict a person or animal to a particular place or area. Don't worry, the baby is confined to her playpen right now. Maddy is scared of dogs, so we need to confine Fido to the back yard. I don't want the cat to follow me down the basement, so please confine her to the living room for now.

2. To restrict something to a particular person or thing; to limit the scope of something. We need to confine our investigation to the area around the park for now. Please confine your requests to the essentials, so as to not overwhelm the staff. No, you need to confine your investigation to just the night of the 15th for now.

See also: confine, to

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

confine someone or an animal to something

to limit someone or an animal to a particular place; to imprison someone or an animal in a particular place. Would you please confine the dog to the basement? She confined herself to the small room for over a year because of her fear of crowds.

See also: an, animal, confine, to

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.