To surround means to be positioned all around something or someone, creating a circle or barrier on every side. When a crowd surrounds a street performer, people stand in a ring facing inward so everyone can see. When a moat surrounds a castle, water wraps completely around the fortress walls.

You might surround yourself with good friends at lunch, sitting together at a table. A forest might surround a small village, with trees spreading out in every direction. Police officers surround a building when they position themselves at all the exits. In chess, you try to surround your opponent's king so it has nowhere safe to move.

The word can also describe the people, things, or conditions that are constantly around you. If you surround yourself with books, you keep them close and read often. Someone might say they grew up surrounded by music if their family played instruments and sang together regularly. Your surroundings are everything in the environment around you: the furniture in a room, the buildings on a street, or the trees and rocks in a forest.

When something is surrounded, it's enclosed on all sides, like an island surrounded by water or a backyard surrounded by a fence.