ENCLOSURE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does enclosure mean? 

• ENCLOSURE (noun)
  The noun ENCLOSURE has 4 senses:

1. a structure consisting of an area that has been enclosed for some purpose

2. the act of enclosing something inside something else

3. a naturally enclosed space

4. something (usually a supporting document) that is enclosed in an envelope with a covering letter

  Familiarity information: ENCLOSURE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENCLOSURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A structure consisting of an area that has been enclosed for some purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

area (a part of a structure having some specific characteristic or function)

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

nacelle (a streamlined enclosure for an aircraft engine)

yard (an enclosure for animals (as chicken or livestock))

vivarium (an indoor enclosure for keeping and raising living animals and plants and observing them under natural conditions)

niche; recess (an enclosure that is set back or indented)

dog pound; pound (a public enclosure for stray or unlicensed dogs)

plenum (an enclosed space in which the air pressure is higher than outside)

pen; playpen (a portable enclosure in which babies may be left to play)

pit (an enclosure in which animals are made to fight)

pen (an enclosure for confining livestock)

lock; lock chamber (enclosure consisting of a section of canal that can be closed to control the water level; used to raise or lower vessels that pass through it)

echo chamber (an enclosed space for producing reverberation of a sound)

dock (an enclosure in a court of law where the defendant sits during the trial)

compound (an enclosure of residences and other building (especially in the Orient))

chamber (a natural or artificial enclosed space)

catchall (an enclosure or receptacle for odds and ends)

cargo area; cargo deck; cargo hold; hold; storage area (the space in a ship or aircraft for storing cargo)

cage; coop (an enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept)

Derivation:

enclose (enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering)

enclose (close in)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of enclosing something inside something else

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

enclosing; enclosure; envelopment; inclosure

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

insertion; introduction; intromission (the act of putting one thing into another)

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

encasement; incasement (the act of enclosing something in a case)

boxing; packing (the enclosure of something in a package or box)

Derivation:

enclose (enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering)

enclose (surround completely)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A naturally enclosed space

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

enclosure; natural enclosure

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

space (an empty area (usually bounded in some way between things))

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

cavern (any large dark enclosed space)

matrix (an enclosure within which something originates or develops (from the Latin for womb))

Derivation:

enclose (close in)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Something (usually a supporting document) that is enclosed in an envelope with a covering letter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

enclosure; inclosure

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

document; papers; written document (writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature))

Derivation:

enclose (place, fit, or thrust (something) into another thing)

 Context examples 

Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; three men fell, one forwards into the enclosure, two back on the outside.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Within there was another enclosure, likewise sealed, and marked upon the cover as “not to be opened till the death or disappearance of Dr. Henry Jekyll.”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Ha! there has been an enclosure here!

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A structural enclosure designed to contain or support a device.

(Housing Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

As the drag drew up in the enclosure near the grand stand I glanced at the card to see the entries.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thomas Bilder lives in one of the cottages in the enclosure behind the elephant-house, and was just sitting down to his tea when I found him.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The walls seemed countless in number, endless in length; a village of hot-houses seemed to arise among them, and a whole parish to be at work within the enclosure.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The white wooden posts, each with the P.C. of the pugilistic club printed upon it, were so fixed as to leave a square of 24 feet within the roped enclosure.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the eastern side of this plain the country-side sloped upwards, thick with vines in summer, but now ridged with the brown bare enclosures.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now here (he pointed to the leafy enclosure we had entered) all is real, sweet, and pure.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)