- enclose
- enclose vb Enclose, envelop, fence, pen, coop, corral, cage, wall mean to surround so as to shut in or confine actually or apparently.Enclose implies a shutting in by barriers (as walls) or in an enveloping cover (as a case); the term may be used without connotations, or it may suggest protection, defense, privacy, or monastic seclusion{
a high hedge encloses the garden
}{the larger fir copses, when they are enclosed, are the resort of all kinds of birds of prey yet left in the south— Jefferies
}{you will find enclosed our price list
}{walked across the enclosed porch, knocked, and opened the inside door— Bradbury
}Envelop (see also COVER) implies enclosure in or by something usually yielding or penetrable that surrounds it on all sides and serves to screen it, to protect it, or to separate it from others{each specimen was enveloped in cotton and packed in a box
}{the heart is enveloped by a serous sac, called the pericardium
}{clouds envelop the mountaintops
}{drew off his coat and enveloped him in a white robe— Krey
}Fence in this sense is usually followed by in or about and means only to enclose with or as if with a fence (as by a row of palings, a wall, or a hedge); the term usually connotes a means of barring trespassers, of keeping animals from wandering about or intruding, or of securing privacy{the farm was fenced about with a stone wall
}{we will have to fence in the garden with wire netting to keep out the rabbits
}{the chickens were not fenced in
}{a tall hedge of hemlocks fenced in the estate
}In extended use the term is a synonym of enclose only when that by which a thing is shut in is a man-made limitation{the men themselves were . . .fenced by etiquette— Emerson
}{fenced by your careful fathers, ringed by your leaden seas, long did ye wake in quiet and long lie down at ease— Kipling
}Pen, usually followed by up or in, implies confinement in or as if in an enclosure with narrow limits and suggests irksome restraint{the troops were penned up for days in inadequate barracks
}{where shepherds pen their flocks at eve, in hurdled cotes— Milton
}{practically the whole of the population is penned in on a narrow coastal strip— W. A. Lewis
}Coop, usually followed by up, also implies confinement in a limited enclosure but it carries even a stronger implication of cramping limitations{coop up the chickens only at night
}{they are at present cooped up in a very small apartment
}{her illness has kept her cooped in for a week
}Corral implies a shutting up in or as if in a strongly fenced enclosure and is used primarily of animals or persons who would scatter, escape, or flee if not securely confined{at night they corralled their horses
}{here they corralled us [prisoners] to the number of seven or eight thousand— Century
}In extended use corral may largely lose its basic notion of shutting up and stress, rather, the difficulty of catching or bringing under control{the vitamins are being corralled one by one and the proteins are being brought under control— Furnas
}Cage is often used, especially with in or up, to imply confinement with severe or humiliating restrictions{I don't stay caged in my shop all day— George Eliot
}{the feeling of caged muscular tightness has provoked a fairly widespread desire to emigrate from Britain— Chamberlain
}Wall means enclosed by a wall which may be material or may be made up of harsh or rigid and impenetrable restraints{walled round with rocks as an inland island, the ghost of a garden fronts the sea— Swinburne
}{walled in by conventions
}Analogous words: confine, circumscribe, *limit, restrict: environ, *surround, encircle, circle, encompass, compass, hem
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
