Library / English Dictionary

SURROUND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The area in which something exists or lives

Example:

the country--the flat agricultural surround

Synonyms:

environment; environs; surround; surroundings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("surround" is a kind of...):

geographic area; geographic region; geographical area; geographical region (a demarcated area of the Earth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "surround"):

ambiance; ambience (the atmosphere of an environment)

medium (the surrounding environment)

scene; setting (the context and environment in which something is set)

element (the most favorable environment for a plant or animal)

habitat; home ground (the type of environment in which an organism or group normally lives or occurs)

melting pot (an environment in which many ideas and races are socially assimilated)

parts (the local environment)

Derivation:

surround (surround with a wall in order to fortify)

surround (extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Surround so as to force to give up

Example:

The Turks besieged Vienna

Synonyms:

beleaguer; besiege; circumvent; hem in; surround

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "surround" is one way to...):

assail; attack (launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "surround"):

ebb (hem in fish with stakes and nets so as to prevent them from going back into the sea with the ebb)

blockade; seal off (impose a blockade on)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Surround with a wall in order to fortify

Synonyms:

fence; fence in; palisade; surround; wall

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "surround" is one way to...):

protect (shield from danger, injury, destruction, or damage)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "surround"):

stockade (surround with a stockade in order to fortify)

circumvallate (surround with or as if with a rampart or other fortification)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

surround (the area in which something exists or lives)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle

Example:

The forest surrounds my property

Synonyms:

border; environ; ring; skirt; surround

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "surround" is one way to...):

adjoin; contact; meet; touch (be in direct physical contact with; make contact)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "surround"):

fringe (decorate with or as if with a surrounding fringe)

gird; girdle (put a girdle on or around)

cloister (surround with a cloister)

close in; enclose; inclose; shut in (surround completely)

hem in (surround in a restrictive manner)

cloister (surround with a cloister, as of a garden)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

surround; surroundings (the area in which something exists or lives)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Envelop completely

Example:

smother the meat in gravy

Synonyms:

smother; surround

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "surround" is one way to...):

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Credits

 Context examples: 

And though I had been surrounded by women all my days, my appreciation of them had been æsthetic and nothing more.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Listen and say little on this day and the days surrounding it.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

They surrounded the cub and laughed at him, while he wailed out his terror and his hurt.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

An invasive adenocarcinoma of the breast characterized by the presence of islands of small and uniform cells, surrounded by large amounts of mucin.

(Mucinous Breast Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

The very cultivation surrounding it had disappeared.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I am surrounded by mountains of ice which admit of no escape and threaten every moment to crush my vessel.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A gland in males that surrounds the neck of the BLADDER and the URETHRA.

(Murine Prostate, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Edward had been staying several weeks in the house before he engaged much of Mrs. Dashwood's attention; for she was, at that time, in such affliction as rendered her careless of surrounding objects.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She wrote cheerfully, seemed surrounded with comforts, and mentioned nothing which she could not praise.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Following head injury, the protective lining that surrounds the brain may get a little help from its friends: immune cells that spring into action to assist with repairs.

(Scientists watch the brain’s lining heal after a head injury, National Institutes of Health)