surround

verb

1. 1

   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.

   It took a long time for the place to warm up and to counteract the cold and enable their fingers to cope with the delicate task of moulding, the men would often surround themselves with blocks of iron heated in the furnace.

   Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.

   and this way they get rid of those grand and stubborn opinions that surround them.

2. 2

   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.

   They surrounded each other in the classroom and started trading hits.

3. 3

   obsoleteTo pass around; to travel about; to circumnavigate.

   to surround the world

noun

1. 1

   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.

Forms

plural

surrounds

past tense

surrounded

past participle

surrounded

present participle

surrounding

third person singular

surrounds