Definition of "enceinte" [en•ceinte]

• Carrying an unborn child; pregnant. (adjective)
• An encircling fortification around a fort, castle, or town. (noun)
• A structure or an area protected by an encircling fortification. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Similarly, a woman who was inspecting was, in the past, often described as enceinte (directly from French) instead of "pregnant" (curiously, also of French origin)."
• "Within the enceinte are the remains of the old castle, still solid and upright; erected, it is recorded, by the English during their long occupation of this country."
• "The enceinte is the normal Arab "snake-fence" of dry and barked branches, which imperfectly defends the nurseries of young trees and the plots of Khubbayzah ( "edible mallows") from the adjoining camping-place of bald yellow clay."