Search

simple past tense and past participle of bind.
tied; in bonds:
a bound prisoner.
made fast as if by a band or bond:
She is bound to her family.
secured within a cover, as a book.
under a legal or moral obligation:
He is bound by the terms of the contract.
destined; sure; certain:
It is bound to happen.
determined or resolved:
He is bound to go.
Pathology, constipated.
Mathematics. (of a vector) having a specified initial point as well as magnitude and direction.
Compare free (def 32).
held with another element, substance, or material in chemical or physical union.
(of a linguistic form) occurring only in combination with other forms, as most affixes.
Compare free (def 35).
bound up in / with,

inseparably connected with.
devoted or attached to:
She is bound up in her teaching.

to move by leaps; leap; jump; spring:
The colt bounded through the meadow.
to rebound, as a ball; bounce:
The ball bounded against the wall.
a leap onward or upward; jump.
a rebound; bounce.
Usually, bounds. limit or boundary:
the bounds of space and time; within the bounds of his estate; within the bounds of reason.
something that limits, confines, or restrains.
bounds.

territories on or near a boundary.
land within boundary lines.

Mathematics. a number greater than or equal to, or less than or equal to, all the numbers in a given set.
Compare greatest lower bound, least upper bound, lower bound, upper bound.
to limit by or as if by bounds; keep within limits or confines.
to form the boundary or limit of.
to name or list the boundary of.
to abut.
out of bounds,

beyond the official boundaries, prescribed limits, or restricted area:
The ball bounced out of bounds.
forbidden; prohibited:
The park is out of bounds to students.

Contemporary Examples

Why Palin Drives Us All Mad Tunku Varadarajan March 30, 2010
Elizabeth Warren’s Summer Grilling Gary Rivlin July 13, 2011
Don’t Count Leno Out Lloyd Grove November 2, 2009
Cyberwar on North Korea Could Be Illegal Shane Harris December 22, 2014
Meet Liberty Ross, the Model Rupert Sanders Jilted for Kristen Stewart Isabel Wilkinson July 25, 2012

Historical Examples

Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
Stories from Thucydides H. L. Havell
Rookwood William Harrison Ainsworth
The Incomplete Amorist E. Nesbit
A Christian Directory (Part 4 of 4) Richard Baxter

plural noun
(sometimes sing) a limit; boundary (esp in the phrase know no bounds)
something that restrains or confines, esp the standards of a society: within the bounds of modesty
beat the bounds, See beat (sense 26)
verb
the past tense and past participle of bind
adjective
in bonds or chains; tied with or as if with a rope: a bound prisoner
(in combination) restricted; confined: housebound, fogbound
(postpositive, foll by an infinitive) destined; sure; certain: it’s bound to happen
(postpositive) , often foll by by. compelled or obliged to act, behave, or think in a particular way, as by duty, circumstance, or convention
(of a book) secured within a cover or binding: to deliver bound books See also half-bound
(US) (postpositive) , foll by on. resolved; determined: bound on winning
(linguistics)

denoting a morpheme, such as the prefix non-, that occurs only as part of another word and not as a separate word in itself Compare free (sense 21)
(in systemic grammar) denoting a clause that has a nonfinite predicator or that is introduced by a binder, and that occurs only together with a freestanding clause Compare freestanding

(logic) (of a variable) occurring within the scope of a quantifier that indicates the degree of generality of the open sentence in which the variable occurs: in (x) (Fx → bxy), x is bound and y is free See free (sense 22)
bound up with, closely or inextricably linked with: his irritability is bound up with his work
I’ll be bound, I am sure (something) is true
verb
to move forwards or make (one’s way) by leaps or jumps
to bounce; spring away from an impact
noun
a jump upwards or forwards
by leaps and bounds, with unexpectedly rapid progess: her condition improved by leaps and bounds
a sudden pronounced sense of excitement: his heart gave a sudden bound when he saw her
a bounce, as of a ball
verb
(transitive) to place restrictions on; limit
when intr, foll by on. to form a boundary of (an area of land or sea, political or administrative region, etc)
noun
(maths)

a number which is greater than all the members of a set of numbers (an upper bound), or less than all its members (a lower bound) See also bounded (sense 1)
more generally, an element of an ordered set that has the same ordering relation to all the members of a given subset
whence, an estimate of the extent of some set

See bounds
adjective

(postpositive) , often foll by for. going or intending to go towards; on the way to: a ship bound for Jamaica, homeward bound
(in combination): northbound traffic

adj.
n.
v.

bound and determined to
bound for
bound hand and foot
bound to, be
bound up in