Pronunciations (5)
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/ˈbaʊ̯nd/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈbæʊ̯nd/
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/ˈbaːnd/
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/ˈbʊnd/
Pronunciation notes
- Northumbria
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/ˈbuːnd/
Pronunciation notes
- Northumbria
Adjective
Obliged (to).
Usage- not-comparable
- with-infinitive
- Examples
-
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.
More examples (1)
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.
That cannot stand alone as a free word.
Usage- not-comparable
- of a morpheme
Constrained by a quantifier.
Usage- not-comparable
- of a variable
Constipated; costive.
Usage- Dated
- not-comparable
Confined or restricted to a certain place.
Usage- In compounds
- not-comparable
- Examples
-
railbound
Unable to move in certain conditions.
Usage- In compounds
- not-comparable
- Examples
-
snowbound
Adjective
Ready, prepared.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
-
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).
- Examples
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Which way are you bound? —I'm already homeward bound.
Is that message bound for me?
More examples (3)
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.
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"
When she is depressed she hops in a taxi cab bound nowhere special and falls apart against the Naugahyde.
Very likely (to), certain to
Usage- with-infinitive
- Examples
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They were bound to come into conflict eventually.
More examples (1)
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
A boundary, the border which one must cross in order to enter or leave a territory.
Usage- often
- used in plural
- Examples
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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.
More examples (2)
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[.]
A value which is known to be greater or smaller than a given set of values.
Verb
To surround a territory or other geographical entity; to form the boundary of.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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grounds bounded on three sides by a river.
France, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra bound Spain.
More examples (4)
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'; […]
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.). . . .
To be the bound of.
Usage- Transitive
Noun
A sizeable jump, great leap.
- Examples
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The deer crossed the stream in a single bound.
A spring from one foot to the other in dancing.
A bounce; a rebound.
Usage- Dated
- Examples
-
Balzo, a bound of a ball
Verb
To leap, move by jumping.
Usage- Intransitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
-
The rabbit bounded down the lane.
More examples (2)
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 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.
To cause to leap.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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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.
To rebound; to bounce.
Usage- Dated
- Intransitive
- Examples
-
A rubber ball bounds on the floor.
To cause to rebound; to throw so that it will rebound; to bounce.
Usage- Dated
- Transitive
- Examples
-
to bound a ball on the floor
Adjective
confined by bonds
- Antonyms
- Examples
-
bound and gagged hostages
held with another element, substance or material in chemical or physical union
- Antonyms
secured with a cover or binding; often used as a combining form
- Antonyms
- Examples
-
bound volumes
leather-bound volumes
(usually followed by ‘to’) governed by fate
- Synonyms
- Examples
-
bound to happen
an old house destined to be demolished
More examples (1)
he is destined to be famous
covered or wrapped with a bandage
- Synonyms
- Examples
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the bandaged wound on the back of his head
an injury bound in fresh gauze
headed or intending to head in a certain direction; often used as a combining form as in ‘college-bound students’
- Synonyms
- Examples
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children bound for school
a flight destined for New York
bound by an oath
- Examples
-
a bound official
bound by contract
- Synonyms
confined in the bowels
- Examples
-
he is bound in the belly
Noun
a line determining the limits of an area
- Broader terms
the line or plane indicating the limit or extent of something
- Broader terms
the greatest possible degree of something
- Broader terms
- Examples
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what he did was beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior
to the limit of his ability
a light, self-propelled movement upwards or forwards
Verb
move forward by leaps and bounds
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
The horse bounded across the meadow
The child leapt across the puddle
More examples (1)
Can you jump over the fence?
form the boundary of; be contiguous to
- Synonyms
place limits on (extent or amount or access)
- Examples
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restrict the use of this parking lot
limit the time you can spend with your friends
spring back; spring away from an impact
- Examples
-
The rubber ball bounced
These particles do not resile but they unite after they collide