bound

verb

1. (form-of, participle, past)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?”

   ““[…] 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.[…]””

2. (transitive)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.”

   “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.”

   “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'; […]”

3. (transitive)To be the bound of.
4. (intransitive)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; […]”

5. (transitive)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.”

6. (dated, intransitive)To rebound; to bounce.

   “A rubber ball bounds on the floor.”

7. (dated, transitive)To cause to rebound; to throw so that it will rebound; to bounce.

   “to bound a ball on the floor”

adj

1. (not-comparable, with-infinitive)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.”

2. (not-comparable)That cannot stand alone as a free word.
3. (not-comparable)Constrained by a quantifier.
4. (dated, not-comparable)Constipated; costive.
5. (in-compounds, not-comparable)Confined or restricted to a certain place.

   “railbound”

6. (in-compounds, not-comparable)Unable to move in certain conditions.

   “snowbound”

7. (obsolete)Ready, prepared.

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

8. 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.”

9. (with-infinitive)Very 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 attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.”

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

noun

1. (often)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.”

   “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[.]”

2. A value which is known to be greater or smaller than a given set of values.
3. A sizeable jump, great leap.

   “The deer crossed the stream in a single bound.”

4. A spring from one foot to the other in dancing.
5. (dated)A bounce; a rebound.

   “Balzo, a bound of a ball”

name

1. A surname.