a word which means home restricted

[alpacinou]

Hello

I'm looking for a word which means people have become "home restricted" during the quarantine. Can I use "homebound"?

What do you think about my sentence?

Since a lot of people have become homebound during the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of time that they use social media platforms has increased. Moreover, online shopping has become more common.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Hello

I'm looking for a word which means people have become "home-restricted" during the quarantine. Can I use "homebound"?

What do you think about my sentence?

Since a lot of people have become homebound during the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of time that they use on social media platforms has increased. Moreover, online shopping has become more common.

Aside from the small addition of on, your sentence is fine.

(And that's the third missing hyphen I've added to threads here in the past half hour. Ay-ay-ay!)

 

[emsr2d2]

"homebound" isn't the word you're looking for. It's "housebound". "homebound" means "on one's way back home". (BrE)

 

[alpacinou]

Aside from the small addition of on, your sentence is fine.

(And that's the third missing hyphen I've added to threads here in the past half hour. Ay-ay-ay!)

On is there because at first I wrote spend and then changed it. I could not find "homebound" in either Oxford or Longman dictionary.

 

[emsr2d2]

homebound

Well, there it is. Apparently, in AmE, it does mean "confined to the home". It's not used like that in BrE.

 

[alpacinou]

"homebound" isn't the word you're looking for. It's "housebound". "homebound" means "on one's way back home". (BrE)

Yes housebound is in the dictionary. But it says people can't leave their house because they are ill. Can I use it to refer to healthy people who are house-restricted owing to the pandemic? Is this okay?

Since a lot of people have become housebound during the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of time that they use social media platforms has increased. Moreover, online shopping has become more common.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

"homebound" isn't the word you're looking for. It's "housebound". "homebound" means "on one's way back home". (BrE)

Yes, thanks. I almost changed it but finally decided not to.

In the US, we say homeward-bound, not homebound.

(Dang. Those hyphens are following me everywhere today.)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Yes housebound is in the dictionary. But it says people can't leave their house because they are ill. . . .

That's exactly right. When I first started to reply, I said it was used for invalids. But these days, it seemed to work, so I deleted that and let homebound stand.

Anyhow, I agree that housebound is a better choice.

Glad we had this little talk!

 

[Rover_KE]

You're looking for 'in lockdown', 'in self-isolation' or 'in self-quarantine'.

 

[emsr2d2]

You're looking for 'in lockdown', 'in self-isolation' or 'in self-quarantine'.

I agree those are great choices to explain the current situation, but none of them fits directly after "Since a lot of people have become ...".