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Contents
surround definition
Overview
This page has 4 definitions of surround in English. Surround is a verb and noun. Examples of how to use surround in a sentence are shown. Also define these 10 related words and terms: encircle, simultaneously, extend, directions, enclose, confine, escape, circumnavigate, fence, and border.
English
Etymology
From Middle English sourrounden (“to submerge, overflow”), from Middle French souronder, suronder, from Late Latin superundō, from super + undō (“to rise in waves”), from unda (“wave”).
Pronunciation
Verb
surround (third-person singular simple present surrounds, present participle surrounding, simple past and past participle surrounded)
- (transitive) To encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions.
- 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
- The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess[1]:
- Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.
- 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 230c.
- and this way they get rid of those grand and stubborn opinions that surround them.
- (transitive) To enclose or confine something on all sides so as to prevent escape.
Escape definition
To get free; to free oneself. (1 of 6 escape definitions)
- (transitive, obsolete) To pass around; to travel about; to circumnavigate.
- to surround the world
- 1650, Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine
- the body of that worthy patriarch […] should steal into that country in a clandestine way, and privately enter in at the postern door; rather let it solemnly surround the country
Circumnavigate definition
To travel completely around somewhere or something, especially by sail. (1 of 3 circumnavigate definitions)
Synonyms
Translations
surround, fence in — see enclose
to encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions
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to enclose to prevent escape
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Noun
surround (plural surrounds)
- (Britain) Anything, such as a fence or border, that surrounds something.
- 1972, Frederick Forsyth, The Odessa File, Viking, SBN 670-52042-x, chapter 15, page 283:
- He drifted through the room, avoiding the furniture by instinct, closed the door that led to the passage, and only then flicked on his flashlight.
- It swept around the room, picking out a desk, a telephone, a wall of bookshelves, and a deep armchair, and finally settled on a handsome fireplace with a large surround of red brick.
Fence definition
A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or a house perimeter. (1 of 8 fence definitions)
- 1972, Frederick Forsyth, The Odessa File, Viking, SBN 670-52042-x, chapter 15, page 283: