surround

1. (transitive) To encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions.Examples: "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."transitive

2. (transitive) To enclose or confine something on all sides so as to prevent escape.Examples: "The lions surrounded the deer herd so they had no way to escape."; "They surrounded each other in the classroom and started trading hits."transitive

3. (transitive, obsolete) To pass around; to travel about; to circumnavigate.Examples: "to surround the world"; "Unfitting it vvas, that the body of that vvorthy Patriarch [Joseph] (to vvhom all the land belonged by promiſe) ſhould ſteale into that Countrey in a clandeſtine vvay, and privately enter in at the poſtern door, rather let it ſolemnly ſurround the Countrey, and be brought in at the broad gates. Thus the corps of men of quality, though the Chancell-door be nearer, are borne through the porch and middle-alley to the place of their interment."obsoletetransitive