bound

alternative archaic bownd

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of bind

   I bound the splint to my leg.

   3 more examples

   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?

   1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Miscellaneous-Historical”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 32

   “[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck ; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared.[…]”

   1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Fate of the Artemis”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020

alternative archaic bownd

1. not comparablewith infinitiveObliged (to).

   You are not legally bound to reply.

   2 more examples

   Well, it isn't for me to say. I'm an employee of the firm and bound to stand by it.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

   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.

   1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Hocussing of Cigarette”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020

2. not comparablehuman sciencesThat cannot stand alone as a free word.
3. not comparablehuman sciencesConstrained by a quantifier.
4. datednot comparableConstipated; costive.
5. in compoundsnot comparableConfined or restricted to a certain place.

   railbound

6. in compoundsnot comparableUnable to move in certain conditions.

   snowbound

comparative more bound · superlative most bound · alternative archaic bownd

1. obsoleteReady, prepared.

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

   1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 4.III

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

   Is that message bound for me?

   4 more examples

   Which way are you bound? —I'm already homeward bound.

   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.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4

   So long, honey babe / Where I'm bound, I can't tell / Goodbye's too good a word, babe / So I'll just say "fare thee well"

   1962, Bob Dylan, “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right”

   When she is depressed she hops in a taxi cab bound nowhere special and falls apart against the Naugahyde.

   1986 February 15, Walta Borawski, “Objects of Affection: Gay Men & Straight Women”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 39, page B6

3. with infinitiveVery likely (to), certain to

   They were bound to come into conflict eventually.

   2 more examples

   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 attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Don’t go around tonight— / Well, it’s bound to take your life: / There’s a bad moon on the rise.

   1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Bad Moon Rising”

plural bounds · alternative archaic bownd

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

   Somewhere within these bounds you may find a buried treasure.

   3 more examples

   I reached the northern bound of my property, took a deep breath and walked on.

   Wyth cry unreverent, Before the sacrament, Wythin the holy church bowndis, That of our fayth the grownd is.

   c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 11–14

   It was sung from the top of the oldest house in the burgh every June at the Common riding, which served both for a perambulation of the bounds of the common pastures or Haughs and to commemorate the young men of Harwick[.]

   1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 27

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

present singular third person bounds · participle present bounding · participle past bounded · past bounded · alternative archaic bownd

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

   grounds bounded on three sides by a river.

   5 more examples

   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.

   I should like to know whether anyone belonging to the houses that bound the line there came of age or got married on the twenty-sixth of November.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   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 parallel of 31° 47'; […]

   1884, Alfred Ronald Conkling, Appleton's Guide to Mexico, page 25

   The Scottish Region is issuing a Day Rail-Rover Ticket, available at 12 hours' notice, permitting unlimited travel in an area bounded by Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Dundee, Perth, Comrie, Callander, Stirling and Falkirk for 25s. (children, 12s. 6d.). . . .

   1960 September, “Talking of Trains: News in Brief”, in Trains Illustrated, page 523

2. transitivemathematicsTo be the bound of.

plural bounds · alternative archaic bownd

1. A sizeable jump, great leap.

   The deer crossed the stream in a single bound.

2. A spring from one foot to the other in dancing.
3. datedA bounce; a rebound.

   Balzo, a bound of a ball

   1598, John Florio, “Balzo”, in A Worlde of Words, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Edw[ard] Blount, →OCLC

present singular third person bounds · participle present bounding · participle past bounded · past bounded · alternative archaic bownd

1. intransitiveTo leap, move by jumping.

   The rabbit bounded down the lane.

   2 more examples

   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; […]

   1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Madeleine”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 3, page 19

   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 couple they nearly are, past the sandpits and the climbing frame that Tom is too big for, past the elephant cage where Tom kicks his football, down the hill towards the Restaurant Teheran which is their improbable pub because Magnus so adores the black and white videos of Arab romances they play for you with the sound down while you eat your couscous and drink your Kalterer.

   1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy

   Synonyms: lollop

2. transitiveTo cause to leap.

   to bound a horse

   1 more example

   […] 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.

   , Act V, Scene II, page 93

3. datedintransitiveTo rebound; to bounce.

   A rubber ball bounds on the floor.

4. datedtransitiveTo cause to rebound; to throw so that it will rebound; to bounce.

   to bound a ball on the floor

1. A surname.