1. (

• containment

) 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. (

• containment

) (physics) a system designed to prevent the accidental release of radioactive material from a reactor ;

3. (

• containment

) the act of containing; keeping something from spreading; "the containment of the AIDS epidemic"; "the containment of the rebellion" ;