/ˈbaʊnd/, /ˈbʊnd/, /ˈbuːnd/
OriginFrom Middle English bound, bund (preterite) and bounden, bunden, ibunden, ȝebunden (past participle), from Old English bund- and bunden, ġebunden respectively. See bind.
- form-of, participle, pastsimple 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?”
- transitiveTo surround a territory or other geographical entity; to form the boundary of.
“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.”
“Mexico is bounded on the north by the United States of America, whose frontier is marked as follows: from the mouth of the Rio Bravo, or Rio Grande del Norte, following the course of the river to the ”
- transitiveTo be the bound of.
- intransitiveTo 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; […]”
“They make love, he hauls her to the bath, washes her, hauls her out and dries her, and twenty minutes later Mary and Magnus are bounding across the little park on the top of Döbling like the happy cou”
- transitiveTo 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.”
- dated, intransitiveTo rebound; to bounce.
“A rubber ball bounds on the floor.”
- dated, transitiveTo cause to rebound; to throw so that it will rebound; to bounce.
“to bound a ball on the floor”
- not-comparable, with-infinitiveObliged (to).
“You are not legally bound to reply.”
“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.”
- not-comparableThat cannot stand alone as a free word.
- not-comparableConstrained by a quantifier.
- dated, not-comparableConstipated; costive.
- not-comparableConfined or restricted to a certain place.
- not-comparableUnable to move in certain conditions.
- obsoleteReady, prepared.
“This certain,—that a band of war / Has for two days been ready boune, / At prompt command to march from Doune […].”
- 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 wrack”
- with-infinitiveVery likely (to), certain to
“They were bound to come into conflict eventually.”
“When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attra”
“Don’t go around tonight— / Well, it’s bound to take your life: / There’s a bad moon on the rise.”
- oftenA 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.”
- A value which is known to be greater or smaller than a given set of values.
- A sizeable jump, great leap.
“The deer crossed the stream in a single bound.”
- A spring from one foot to the other in dancing.
- datedA bounce; a rebound.
“Balzo, a bound of a ball”
Formsbownd(alternative) · more bound(comparative) · most bound(superlative) · bounds(plural) · bounds(present, singular, third-person) · bounding(participle, present) · bounded(participle, past) · bounded(past)