containment

Noun

containment (countable and uncountable, plural containments)

1. (uncountable) The state of being contained.
   • A new siding and turnback facility at Midleton will also be developed, along with new cable containment routes.2024 September 18, “Network News: Cork twin-tracking set to begin”, in RAIL, number 1018, page 13
2. The state of containing.
3. (obsolete) Something contained.
   • The containment of a rich man's estate.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
4. A policy of checking the expansion of a hostile foreign power by creating alliances with other states; especially the foreign policy strategy of the United States in the early years of the Cold War.
   • Mr. Putin has reinvigorated an alliance that spent years confused about its purpose once it lost the adversary it was formed to contain, the Soviet Union. Now, containment is back.2022 February 18, David E. Sanger, “The United States’ Message to Russia: Prove Us Wrong”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
5. (countable) A physical system designed to prevent the accidental release of radioactive or other dangerous materials from a nuclear reactor or industrial plant.
6. (countable) An inclusion.