containment meaning and definition

CONTAINMENT noun

Definition of containment (noun)

1. a policy of creating strategic alliances in order to check the expansion of a hostile power or ideology or to force it to negotiate peacefully
   • "containment of communist expansion was a central principle of United States' foreign policy from 1947 to the 1975"
2. (physics) a system designed to prevent the accidental release of radioactive material from a reactor
3. the act of containing; keeping something from spreading
   • "the containment of the AIDS epidemic"; "the containment of the rebellion"