Picture a line drawn around something, and the rule that it may not cross that line. Whatever is inside — a person, a fire, a discussion — can still move, but only within the boundary. Confine is not about pushing something down; it is about the edge that will not let it out.
From the word’s history
confine comes from Latin confīnis 'sharing a boundary', built from con- 'together' + fīnis 'end, limit, border' — the same fīnis behind finish and final. The word literally names the border-line where two territories meet, so the modern sense is barely a metaphor: to confine is still to put a fīnis around something.
confine 來自拉丁文 confīnis「共有邊界的」，拆開是 con-（一起）+ fīnis（終點、界線）——finish、final 裡的那個 fīnis 就是它。這個字最早指的就是兩塊地相接的那條界線。所以現代的用法幾乎不算比喻：confine 到今天做的還是同一件事，在某個東西外面放一條 fīnis，告訴它「到這裡為止」。
Wiktionary (confine ← Middle French confiner ← confins ← Latin confīnium/confīnis, from con- + fīnis 'boundary'), corroborated by Online Etymology Dictionary
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原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
confineverb/kənˈfaɪn/
- 1
obsoleteTo have a common boundary with; to border on.
- Where your gloomy bounds / Confine with heaven
- Betwixt heaven and earth and skies there stands a place / Confining on all three.
- 2
To restrict (someone or something) to a particular scope or area; to keep in or within certain bounds.
- Now let not nature's hand / Keep the wild flood confined! let order die!
- 1680, John Dryden, Ovid’s Epistles translated by several hands, London: Jacob Tonson, Preface, He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and the slavery of rhyme.
confinenoun/kənˈfaɪn/
- 1
A boundary or limit.
- 2
Confinement, imprisonment.
- She says for you to bring her a slice of cake, A bottle of the best wine, And not to forget the fair young lady That did release you from close confine.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。