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bound

verb
/ˈbaʊ̯nd/US/ˈbæʊ̯nd/

Etymology

From Middle English *bounden (attested as bounten), from French bondir (“leap", "bound", originally "make a loud resounding noise”); perhaps from Late Latin bombitāre (“hum, buzz”), frequentative verb, from Latin bombus (“a humming or buzzing”).

  1. derived from bombus — “a humming or buzzing”
  2. derived from bombitō — “hum, buzz”
  3. derived from bondir — “leap", "bound", originally "make a loud resounding noise”
  4. inherited from *bounden✻

Definitions

  1. simple past and past participle of bind

    • I bound the splint to my leg.
    • I had bound the splint with duct tape.
    • The maidens have bound silver snoods about their hair, with gold spangles, and pendent flames (Flammen), that is, sparkling hair-drops : but of their mother's headgear who shall speak?

  2. Obliged (to).

    • You are not legally bound to reply.
    • Well, it isn't for me to say. I'm an employee of the firm and bound to stand by it.
    • Then I had a good think on the subject of the hocussing of Cigarette, and I was reluctantly bound to admit that once again the man in the corner had found the only possible solution to the mystery.

  3. That cannot stand alone as a free word.

  4. ›+ 19 more definitions

    1. Constrained by a quantifier.

    2. Constipated

      Constipated; costive.

    3. Confined or restricted to a certain place.

      • railbound

    4. Unable to move in certain conditions.

      • snowbound

    5. Ready, prepared.

      • This certain,—that a band of war / Has for two days been ready boune, / At prompt command to march from Doune […].

    6. Ready to start or go (to)

      Ready to start or go (to); moving in the direction (of).

      • Which way are you bound? —I'm already homeward bound.
      • Is that message bound for me?
      • Ar. […]and for the reſt o'th' Fleet / (Which I diſpers'd) they all haue met againe, / And are vpon the Mediterranean Flote / Bound ſadly home for Naples, / Suppoſing that they ſaw the Kings ſhip wrackt, / And his great perſon periſh.

    7. Very likely (to), certain to

      • They were bound to come into conflict eventually.
      • Don’t go around tonight— / Well, it’s bound to take your life: / There’s a bad moon on the rise.

    8. A boundary, the border which one must cross in order to enter or leave a territory.

      • I reached the northern bound of my property, took a deep breath and walked on.
      • Somewhere within these bounds you may find a buried treasure.
      • Wyth cry unreverent, Before the sacrament, Wythin the holy church bowndis, That of our fayth the grownd is.

    9. A value which is known to be greater or smaller than a given set of values.

    10. To surround a territory or other geographical entity

      To surround a territory or other geographical entity; to form the boundary of.

      • grounds bounded on three sides by a river.
      • France, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra bound Spain.
      • Kansas is bounded by Nebraska on the north, Missouri on the east, Oklahoma on the south and Colorado on the west.

    11. To be the bound of.

    12. A sizeable jump, great leap.

      • The deer crossed the stream in a single bound.

    13. A spring from one foot to the other in dancing.

    14. A bounce

      A bounce; a rebound.

      • Balzo, a bound of a ball

    15. To leap, move by jumping.

      • The rabbit bounded down the lane.
      • But when I turn away, / Thou, willing me to stay, / Wooest not, nor vainly wranglest; / But, looking fixedly the while, / All my bounding heart entanglest, / In a golden-netted smile; […]

    16. To cause to leap.

      • to bound a horse
      • […] Or if I might buffet for my Loue, or bound my Horſe for her fauours, I could lay on like a Butcher, and fit like a Iack an Apes, neuer off.

    17. To rebound

      To rebound; to bounce.

      • A rubber ball bounds on the floor.

    18. To cause to rebound

      To cause to rebound; to throw so that it will rebound; to bounce.

      • to bound a ball on the floor

    19. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

airbound, antibound, barkbound, bedbound, boatbound, boundation, bound bailiff, bound form, bound morpheme, boundness, bound property, bound state, boundstone, bound termineme, bound up, bound water, brassbound, browbound, calfbound, casebound, cellbound, chairbound, cliffbound, clothbound, cobound, colourbound, couchbound, cropbound, deathbound, deskbound, dreambound, firbound, flexibound, footbound, frostbound, full-bound, half-bound, handbound, hardbound, hidebound · +52 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at bound. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01bound02obliged03grateful04agreeable05ready06happen07occur08offer09terms10term

A definitional loop anchored at bound. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at bound

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA