[noun] a policy of creating strategic alliances in order to check the expansion of a hostile power or ideology or to force it to negotiate pecefully; "containment of communist expansion was a central principle of United States' foreign policy from 1947 to the 1975"
[noun] (physics) a system designed to prevent the accidental release of radioactive material from a reactor
[noun] (military) the act of containing something or someone; keeping it from spreading; "the army was charged with the containment of the rebel forces"