2. Apartment; place of restraint; prison. [Obs.]
Confines, wards, and dungeons.
Shak.
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine.
Shak.
Confineless
(Con"fine`less) a. Without limitation or end; boundless. Shak.
Confinement
(Con*fine"ment) n.
1. Restraint within limits; imprisonment; any restraint of liberty; seclusion.
The mind hates restraint, and is apt to fancy itself under confinement when the sight is pent up.
Addison.
2. Restraint within doors by sickness, esp. that caused by childbirth; lying-in.
Confiner
(Con*fin"er) n. One who, or that which, limits or restrains.
Confiner
(Con"fi`ner) n. One who lives on confines, or near the border of a country; a borderer; a near
neighbor. [Obs.] Bacon.
Happy confiners you of other lands,
That shift your soil, and oft 'scape tyrants' hands.
Daniel.
Confinity
(Con*fin"i*ty) n. [Cf. F. confinité.] Community of limits; contiguity. [R.] Bailey.
Confirm
(Con*firm") v. t. [imp. & p. p. Confrmed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Confirming.] [OE. confermen,
confirmen, OF. confermer, F. confirmer, fr. L. confirmare; con- + firmare to make firm, fr. firmus
firm. See Firm.]
1. To make firm or firmer; to add strength to; to establish; as, health is confirmed by exercise.
Confirm the crown to me and to mine heirs.
Shak.
And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law.
Ps. cv. 10.
2. To strengthen in judgment or purpose.
Confirmed, then, I resolve
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe.
Milton.
3. To give new assurance of the truth of; to render certain; to verify; to corroborate; as, to confirm a rumor.
Your eyes shall witness and confirm my tale.
Pope.
These likelihoods confirm her flight.
Shak.
4. To render valid by formal assent; to complete by a necessary sanction; to ratify; as, to confirm the
appoinment of an official; the Senate confirms a treaty.
That treaty so prejudicial ought to have been remitted rather than confimed.
Swift.
5. (Eccl.) To administer the rite of confirmation to. See Confirmation, 3.
Those which are thus confirmed are thereby supposed to be fit for admission to the sacrament.
Hammond.
Syn. — To strengthen; corroborate; substantiate; establish; fix; ratify; settle; verify; assure.
Confirmable
(Con*firm"a*ble) a. That may be confirmed.
