hem in

Questions about hem in

What does hem in mean?

hem in means "surround in a restrictive manner". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for hem in?

Close synonyms include besiege, beleaguer, surround, circumvent. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is hem in a common word?

hem in is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.