surround

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the area in which something exists or lives

   the country--the flat agricultural surround

2. 2
   verb

   To encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions.

   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.

3. 3
   verb

   To enclose or confine something on all sides so as to prevent escape.

   The lions surrounded the deer herd so they had no way to escape.

4. 4
   verb

   To pass around; to travel about; to circumnavigate.

   to surround the world

5. 5
   noun

   Anything, such as a fence or border, that surrounds something.

   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.

6. 6
   verb

   surround so as to force to give up

7. 7
   verb

   surround with a wall in order to fortify

8. 8
   verb

   extend on all sides of simultaneously

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”).