Quranic root
حصر
ḥ · ṣ · r
The root centers on gathering, enclosing, holding back, and preventing movement or access.
From enclosure and restraint, the root develops meanings of besieging, detention, inward constriction, abstention, and related senses involving things brought together or held within boundaries.
- Maqāyīs · row 1376
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَصَرَ / حَصِرَ
ḥaṣara / ḥaṣira
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To surround, hem in, besiege, or confine someone, thereby restricting movement or access.
The Quranic imperative in 9:5 describes surrounding and besieging people. The transitive use may include preventing a person or group from proceeding freely.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:5word 10
“and besiege them”
To become inwardly constricted, shrinking from or being unable to undertake an action.
In 4:90 the constriction is predicated of the bosoms of people who are reluctant or unable to fight. This is an inward state of inhibition, distinct from an external siege.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:90word 11
“restraining”
أَحْصَرَ
ʾaḥṣara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To be prevented, detained, or held back from proceeding or reaching a destination.
The Quranic passive construction includes being prevented from pilgrimage or from pursuing one's course by an external obstacle or an internal cause such as illness. It also describes people confined in the path of God.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:196word 6
“you are held back”
Quran 2:273word 3
“are wrapped up”
حَصِير
ḥaṣīr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A prison or confining enclosure.
In 17:8, the term is interpreted as a prison or other place that confines; the interpretation treats it as something that holds people in.
- Lane · entry 14717
- Mufradāt · row 330
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:8word 11
“a prison-bed”
A woven mat, bed, or spread laid out for sitting or lying.
In 17:8, an alternative interpretation understands the word as a mat or bed, including a woven spread placed on the ground.
- Lane · entry 14717
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:8word 11
“a prison-bed”
حَصُور
ḥaṣūr
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Sexually abstinent; one who does not have sexual intercourse with women.
In 3:39 the term describes John. Classical explanations include abstention through chastity and abstention through impotence; the chaste abstention is presented as the more fitting Quranic interpretation.
- Lane · entry 14716
- Mufradāt · row 330
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:39word 17
“and chaste”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:196أُحْصِرْتُمْyou are held back
- 2:273أُحْصِرُوا۟are wrapped up
- 3:39وَحَصُورًۭاand chaste
- 4:90حَصِرَتْrestraining
- 9:5وَٱحْصُرُوهُمْand besiege them
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 39 Classical meanings
حَصَرَ / حَصِرَ
To be held back from journeying or a desired act by illness, fear, or another internal impediment; to restrain oneself.
This is the internally caused or self-restraining branch, distinguished in some accounts from being forcibly confined by another.
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حَصَرَ
To take the whole of something, appropriate it exclusively, or acquire it for oneself.
- Lane · entry 14703
حُصْرٌ
Suppression of the feces or constipation of the bowels; in some usage, suppression of urine as well.
The terminology is distinguished in some authorities from a separate term for urinary suppression, while others extend it to both.
- Lane · entry 14703
- Lane · entry 14708
مَحْصُورٌ
Afflicted with suppression of the feces or constipation of the bowels, and sometimes with suppression of urine.
This is the passive adjectival description of a person suffering the condition.
- Lane · entry 14721
حَصَرَتِ النَّاقَةُ
Of a she-camel: to have a narrow orifice to the teat, or for that orifice to become narrow.
- Lane · entry 14703
حَصُورٌ
Of a she-camel: having a narrow orifice to the teat.
This is an animal-specific adjectival use, separate from the Quranic description of a sexually abstinent person.
- Lane · entry 14716
حَصَرٌ
Suppression of a camel's milk flow, associated with heaviness or heaving of the stomach, a tendency to vomit, or unwillingness to yield milk.
- Lane · entry 14709
حَصِرَةُ الشَّخْبِ
A she-camel whose flow of milk is suppressed.
- Lane · entry 14710
حَصِرَ
To be unable to express one's meaning, falter in speech, or become impeded in reading or recitation.
The impediment may arise from shame, confusion, or another accidental cause; it is not simply a pronunciation or grammatical defect.
- Lane · entry 14703
حَصِرٌ
A person unable to express what he wishes to say, or unable to proceed in reading or recitation.
- Lane · entry 14710
حَصِرَ عَنِ الْمَرْأَةِ
To abstain from sexual intercourse or be prevented from having it, despite the capacity or desire for it.
The expression may refer to voluntary abstention or to impotence; it is a Classical verbal construction distinct from the Quranic adjectival form حَصُورٌ.
- Lane · entry 14703
حَصِرَ
To vomit.
- Lane · entry 14703
- Lane · entry 14710
حَصِرَ
To become affected by a disease or malady.
- Lane · entry 14703
حَصِرَ
To be niggardly, tenacious, penurious, or avaricious.
The use may describe refusing to spend on companions or withholding one's contribution to a shared occasion.
- Lane · entry 14703
حَصِرٌ
A niggardly, withholding, or avaricious person.
It may describe one who refuses to spend on drinking companions or take part in a customary game because of stinginess.
- Lane · entry 14710
حَصِرَ بِالسِّرِّ
To conceal a secret or refrain from divulging it.
- Lane · entry 14703
حَصِرٌ بِالسِّرِّ
A strict concealer of secrets.
- Lane · entry 14710
حَصَرَ الْبَعِيرَ
To bind or fit a حِصَار or similar pad and saddle apparatus onto a camel.
- Lane · entry 14703
اِنْحَصَرَ
To become restrained, withheld, or prevented.
This is the intransitive Form VII usage.
- Lane · entry 14706
حَصُورٌ
Of a horse: sexually impotent or unable to mate.
This animal application is distinct from the Quranic human description.
- Lane · entry 14716
حَصُورٌ
Castrated; having the penis and testicles amputated.
- Lane · entry 14716
حَصُورٌ
Very fearful or cautious, refraining from an action through fear.
- Lane · entry 14716
حَصْرَاءُ
A woman whose sexual passage is impervious to intercourse.
This is an anatomical description, synonymous in the cited evidence with رَتْقَاءُ.
- Lane · entry 14712
حُصْرِيٌّ
A maker or seller of reed, rush, or palm-leaf mats.
- Lane · entry 14713
حِصَارٌ
A fortress, fort, or castle.
- Lane · entry 14715
حِصَارٌ / حَصَارٌ
A padded camel saddle, cushion, pad, or small saddle apparatus placed or bound upon a camel.
The term covers several closely related forms of padding or saddle equipment used by riders or animal trainers.
- Lane · entry 14703
- Lane · entry 14715
مَحْصُورٌ
Straitened, surrounded, besieged, beset, confined, detained, or prevented from journeying.
This is the passive adjectival form, including confinement within or by a fortress.
- Lane · entry 14721
مَحْصُورٌ
A camel furnished with a حِصَار or related saddle pad.
- Lane · entry 14721
حَصِيرٌ
A king or ruler.
The title is explained either by the ruler's seclusion or by his preventing unrestricted access to him.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
A woven thing, especially a mat made from reeds, rushes, papyrus, or palm leaves.
The plural forms include حُصُرٌ and the contracted حُصْرٌ.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
An ornamented or variegated garment or piece of cloth whose beauty captivates the heart when spread out.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
A sitting-place.
This sense is reported in the lexical evidence, though one comment regards it as possibly a textual error for a place of confinement.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
The surface of the ground.
The mat sense is explained in relation to something spread over the ground.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
Water.
The cited explanation may relate the term to the woven or rippled appearance of a surface.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
The diversified wavy marks, streaks, or grain of a sword; also one of the sword's two sides in a related use.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
A road or way.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
A row of men or of other things.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرٌ
A side of the body, or the transverse vein, sinew, or portion of flesh extending across the side of a camel, horse, or other beast.
The anatomical descriptions vary between the visible side, the transverse vein, adjoining sinew, and the flesh between the ribs and flank.
- Lane · entry 14717
حَصِيرَةٌ
A place in which dates are dried.
- Lane · entry 14718
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Form I uses include active surrounding or confinement and an intransitive inward constriction; the supplied evidence also records differing Classical accounts of the distinction between حَصَرَ and أَحْصَرَ.
حَصِيرٌ in 17:8 has materially different supported interpretations: a prison or confining enclosure, and a woven mat or bed.
حَصُورٌ in 3:39 is explained either as abstention through chastity or as impotence; the chastity interpretation is favored in the Quran-focused evidence.
The reported sitting-place sense of حَصِيرٌ is accompanied by a lexicographic qualification that it may be an error for a place of confinement.