enclosurenoun/ɛnˈkloʊʒəɹ/

• 1

  Something that is enclosed, i.e. inserted into a letter or similar package.

  • There was an enclosure with the letter — a photo.
  • Mr Carlyle cut open the envelope, glanced at the enclosure, and in spite of his disappointment could not restrain a chuckle.
• 2

  The act of enclosing, i.e. the insertion or inclusion of an item in a letter or package.

  • The enclosure of a photo with your letter is appreciated.
• 3

  An area, domain, or amount of something partially or entirely enclosed by barriers.

  • He faced punishment for creating the fenced enclosure in a public park.
  • The glass enclosure holds the mercury vapor.
• 4

  The act of separating and surrounding an area, domain, or amount of something with a barrier.

  • The enclosure of public land is against the law.
  • The experiment requires the enclosure of mercury vapor in a glass tube.
• 5

  The act of restricting access to ideas, works of art or technologies using patents or intellectual property laws.

  • Copyright, from day one, was designed to be both an impediment and an incentive, a mechanism of enclosure (one that prevented the unlicensed printing of texts, thereby limiting access) and a catalyst of sorts, a structure to stimulate the production of literary goods by rewarding writers and publishers for their labor.
  • The commons evokes resistance to “enclosure” in all its forms, whether in its early proto-capitalist form of fencing in commonly shared land, or in its contemporary forms of marshalling judicial restraints such as “patent” and “intellectual property” to police the ownership of ideas.
• 6

  The post-feudal process of subdivision of common lands for individual ownership.

  • Strip-farming disappeared after enclosure.
• 7

  lifestylereligionThe area of a convent, monastery, etc where access is restricted to community members.