Confine, n. — Webster enters it under “confine”
1. Common boundary; border; limit; -- used chiefly in the plural. Events that came to pass within the confines of Judea. Locke. And now in little space The confines met of emryrean heaven, And of this world. Milton. On the confines of the city and the Temple. Macaulay.
2. Apartment; place of restraint; prison. [Obs.] Confines, wards, and dungeons. Shak. The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine. Shak.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Confine, v. t. [imp. & p.p. Confined; p.pr. & vb.n. Confining.]
To restrain within limits; to restrict; to limit; to bound; to shut up; to inclose; to keep close. Now let not nature's hand Keep the wild flood confined! let order die! Shak. He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and the slavery of rhyme. Dryden. To be confined, to be in childbed.
Syn. -- To bound; limit; restrain; imprison; immure; inclose; circumscribe; restrict.
Confine or
(v. i. To have a common boundary; to border; to lie contiguous; to touch; -- followed by on or with. [Obs.] Where your g;oomy bounds Confine with heaven. Milton. Beywixt hezven and earth and skies there stands a place. Confuining on all three. Dryden.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for confines; he lists it under boundary.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.