containment Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a policy of creating strategic alliances in order to check the expansion of a hostile power or ideology or to force it to negotiate peacefully
    • containment of communist expansion was a central principle of United States' foreign policy from 1947 to the 1975
  2. noun (physics) a system designed to prevent the accidental release of radioactive material from a reactor
  3. noun the act of containing; keeping something from spreading
    • the containment of the AIDS epidemic
    • the containment of the rebellion

WordNet

Con*tain"ment noun
Definitions
  1. That which is contained; the extent; the substance. Obs.
    The containment of a rich man's estate. Fuller.

Webster 1913