enclosure

 
Pronunciation: /ɪnˈkləʊʒə, ɛn-/
(also inclosure)

noun

  • 1an area that is surrounded by a barrier: a deer enclosure
  • British a section of a racecourse for a specified activity or group of people: the members' enclosure
  • a barrier that surrounds an area: the cemetery lay within a high walled enclosure
  • 2a document or object placed in an envelope together with a letter.
  • 3 [mass noun] historical the process or policy of fencing in wasteland or common land so as to make it private property, as pursued in much of Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries: one of the chief effects of enclosure was to increase the number of landless workers
  • 4the state of being enclosed, especially in a religious community: the nuns kept strict enclosure

Origin:

late Middle English: from legal Anglo-Norman French and Old French, from enclos 'closed in' (see enclose)