ENVIRONS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does environs mean? 

• ENVIRONS (noun)
  The noun ENVIRONS has 2 senses:

1. the area in which something exists or lives

2. an outer adjacent area of any place

  Familiarity information: ENVIRONS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENVIRONS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The area in which something exists or lives

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

environment; environs; surround; surroundings

Context example:

the country--the flat agricultural surround

Hypernyms ("environs" 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 "environs"):

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An outer adjacent area of any place

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

environs; purlieu

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

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

 Context examples 

They were in the environs of Mansfield long before the usual dinner-time, and as they approached the beloved place, the hearts of both sisters sank a little.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But my toils now drew near a close, and in two months from this time I reached the environs of Geneva.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Catherine was all eager delight—her eyes were here, there, everywhere, as they approached its fine and striking environs, and afterwards drove through those streets which conducted them to the hotel.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The want of proper families in the place, and the conviction that none beyond the place and its immediate environs could be tempted to attend, were mentioned; but he was not satisfied.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

As he had said, there was probably nothing at all extraordinary in the substance of the narrative itself: a wealthy Englishman's passion for a French dancer, and her treachery to him, were every-day matters enough, no doubt, in society; but there was something decidedly strange in the paroxysm of emotion which had suddenly seized him when he was in the act of expressing the present contentment of his mood, and his newly revived pleasure in the old hall and its environs.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mrs. Gardiner was surprised and concerned; but as they were now approaching the scene of her former pleasures, every idea gave way to the charm of recollection; and she was too much engaged in pointing out to her husband all the interesting spots in its environs to think of anything else.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The rooms were shut up, the lodgers almost all gone, scarcely any family but of the residents left; and, as there is nothing to admire in the buildings themselves, the remarkable situation of the town, the principal street almost hurrying into the water, the walk to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant little bay, which, in the season, is animated with bathing machines and company; the Cobb itself, its old wonders and new improvements, with the very beautiful line of cliffs stretching out to the east of the town, are what the stranger's eye will seek; and a very strange stranger it must be, who does not see charms in the immediate environs of Lyme, to make him wish to know it better.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

His spirits, during the last two or three days, though still very unequal, were greatly improved—he grew more and more partial to the house and environs—never spoke of going away without a sigh—declared his time to be wholly disengaged—even doubted to what place he should go when he left them—but still, go he must.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The scientists looked at the growth and survival of trees that sprouted from parent trees and grew up in crowded environs, compared to trees from seeds that were widely transported across the forest by animals.

(Overhunting of large animals has catastrophic effects on trees, NSF)

We passed a considerable period at Oxford, rambling among its environs and endeavouring to identify every spot which might relate to the most animating epoch of English history.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)