短语结构为:confine + 宾语(sb./sth.) + to + 名词/代词(to后接“限制的范围/地点/时间”)。
常表示“禁闭、困住、强制留在某地”(多为被动语态)。
The sick child was confined to bed for a week.(生病的孩子被迫卧床一周。)
The prisoner is confined to his cell 23 hours a day.(囚犯每天被关在牢房里23小时。)
The heavy snow confined us to the house all weekend.(大雪让我们整个周末都被困在家里。)
用于要求“不偏离主题、聚焦某方面”。
Please confine your remarks to the agenda—we don’t have time for unrelated topics.(请把发言限制在议程内——我们没时间谈无关话题。)
The teacher confined the students’ questions to the novel they’d read.(老师让学生的问题聚焦在他们读的那本小说上。)
表示“只在某段时间或某方面做某事”。
She confines her shopping to the weekends to save time.(她只在周末购物以节省时间。)
I try to confine work emails to office hours—I don’t check them at home.(我尽量把工作邮件限制在办公时间内——在家不查。)
表示主动“约束自己、只做/只说某事”。
I’ll confine myself to a brief summary—no long speeches.(我会只做简要总结——不长篇大论。)
He confines himself to one cup of coffee a day for health reasons.(出于健康考虑,他每天只喝一杯咖啡。)
两者都有“限制”之意,但 confine 更强调“物理/空间上的禁闭”或“严格的边界限制”(如“关在牢房、卧床”);
limit 更侧重“数量、程度或范围的上限”(如“限制金额、时间”)。
例:
He limited his spending to $50 a week.(他每周开销限制在50美元内。)(数量限制)
He was confined to his room for breaking the rules.(他因违规被关在房间里。)(空间禁闭)
confine to bed:卧床(因病或医嘱);
confine sb. to a place:把某人限制在某地;
confine discussion to sth.:将讨论限制在某事上;
confine oneself to sth.:自我限制于某事。
综上,confine…to… 是一个强调“边界约束”的短语,核心是“不让超出某个范围”,具体用法需结合“限制的对象”和“限制的范围”来理解~