confiner

confine (verb) +‎ -er

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, 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, 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, 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,

     The undercover investigation exposed inadequate treatment, housing, and care of marine mammals at Marineland, the world’s largest confiner of beluga whales.

confine (noun) +‎ -er

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,

     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, 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, 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, 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. ,

     […] 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.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     The senate hath stirr’d up the confiners
     And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits,
     That promise noble service […]

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,

     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.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.fi.ne/
• Rhymes: -e

• Audio

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confiner

1. to confine (to have a common boundary)

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• “confiner”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.