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An inclosed place. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To come or gather around; to inclose; to encompass; to confine. The depth closed me round about. Jonah ii. 5. But now thou dost thyself immure and close In some one corner of a feeble heart. Herbert. A closed sea, a sea within the jurisdiction of some particular nation, which controls its navigation.…

That which incloses or confines; an inclosure. O thou bloody prison . . . Within the guilty closure of thy walls Richard the Second here was hacked to death. Shak.

Inclosed in a shell. The tender horns of cockled snails. Shak.

A pit, or inclosed area, for cockfights. Henry the Eight had built . . . a cockpit. Macaulay.

The case in which a dead human body is inclosed for burial. They embalmed him [Joseph], and he was put in a coffin. Gen. 1. 26.

An inclosed or uninclosed tract of ground for pleasure, for pasturage, etc., the use of which belongs to the public; or to a number of persons.

rmth and cold. Whewell. The bubble, by reason of its comparative levity to the fluid that incloses it, would necessarily ascend to the top. Bentley.

One of the parts into which an inclosed portion of space is divided, as by partitions, or lines; as, the compartments of a cabinet, a house, or a garden. In the midst was placed a large compartment composed of grotesque work. Carew.

An inclosed space; an area; extent. Their wisdom . . . lies in a very narrow compass. Addison.

(Bot.), a flower head resembling a single flower, but really composed of several florets inclosed in a common calyxlike involucre, as the sunflower or dandelion. -- Compound fraction. (Math.) See Fraction. -- Compound fracture. See Fracture. -- Compound householder, a householder who compounds or arranges with his…

That which is comrehended or inclosed within narrow limits; a summary; an epitome. [Obs.] Though not a catalogue of fundamentals, yet . . . a comprehension of them. Chillingworth.

To shut up; to inclose. [Obs.] The very person of Christ [was] concluded within the grave. Hooker.

The recess, seat, or inclosed place, where a priest sits to hear confessions; often a small structure furnished with a seat for the priest and with a window or aperture so that the penitent who is outside may whisper into the priest's ear without being seen by him or heard by others.

To restrain within limits; to restrict; to limit; to bound; to shut up; to inclose; to keep close. Now let not nature's hand Keep the wild flood confined! let order die! Shak. He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and the slavery of rhyme. Dryden. To be confined, to be in childbed.

To hold within fixed limits; to comprise; to include; to inclose; to hold. Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can not contain thee; how much less this house! 2 Chron. vi. 18. When that this body did contain a spirit. Shak. What thy stores contain bring forth. Milton.

A clay tablet on which was inscribed a contract, for safe keeping. Such tablets were inclosed in an outer case (often called the envelope), on which was inscribed a duplicate of the inscription on the inclosed tablet.

A children's game in which one player is inclosed by a circle of others holding a rope.

A cap of paper twisted at the end, used by retailers to inclose small wares. Cotgrave.

To surround and inclose; to coop up; to put into an inclosed space; -- primarily used with reference to securing horses and cattle in an inclosure of wagons while traversing the plains, but in the Southwestern United States now colloquially applied to the capturing, securing, or penning of anything. Bartlett.…