When you corner someone, you trap them in a situation where they can't escape or avoid you. Imagine chasing a squirrel in your backyard: it might dart left, then right, but if it runs into the fence corner where two walls meet, it's cornered with nowhere left to go.

The word works the same way with people and conversations. If your mom corners you in the kitchen to ask about your homework, she's caught you in a spot where you can't easily leave without answering. A detective might corner a suspect with questions that leave no good way to dodge the truth.

As a noun, a corner is the place where two lines, edges, or walls meet, like the corner of a room or the corner of a street.

Corner can also describe gaining control of something valuable. When a company corners the market on a product, they control so much of it that competitors can't effectively compete. If you bought all the chocolate bars at school before the bake sale, you'd have cornered the market on chocolate, giving you unusual power over the price and supply.

Whether you're physically trapped in a corner or caught in a situation you can't avoid, being cornered means your options have suddenly become very limited.