bound

• bownd (archaic)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊnd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊnd

See bind.

bound

1. simple past tense and past participle of bind
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Fate of the Artemis‎:

     “[…] 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. […]”

   I bound the splint to my leg.

   I had bound the splint with duct tape.

bound (not comparable)

1. (with infinitive) Obliged (to).
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 5, in The Hocussing of Cigarette‎:

     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.

   You are not legally bound to reply.

2. (with infinitive) Very likely (to), certain to
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

   They were bound to come into conflict eventually.

3. (linguistics, of a morpheme) That cannot stand alone as a free word.
4. (mathematics, logic, of a variable) Constrained by a quantifier.
5. (dated) Constipated; costive.
6. Confined or restricted to a certain place; e.g. railbound.
7. Unable to move in certain conditions; e.g. snowbound.

• (logic: constrained by a quantifier): free

• bound to
• I'll be bound

From Middle English bounde, from Old French bunne, from Medieval Latin bodina, earlier butina (“a bound, limit”)

bound (plural bounds)

1. (often used in plural) 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.

2. (mathematics) A value which is known to be greater or smaller than a given set of values.

bound (third-person singular simple present bounds, present participle bounding, simple past and past participle bounded)

1. To surround a territory or other geographical entity.

   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.

2. (mathematics) To be the boundary of.

From French bondir (“to leap, bound, originally make a loud resounding noise”); perhaps, from Late Latin bombitāre, present active infinitive of bombitō (“hum, buzz”), frequentative verb, from Latin bombus (“a humming or buzzing”).

bound (plural bounds)

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. (dated) A bounce; a rebound.

   the bound of a ball

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

• by leaps and bounds

bound (third-person singular simple present bounds, present participle bounding, simple past and past participle bounded)

1. (intransitive) To leap, move by jumping.
   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     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.

   The rabbit bounded down the lane.

2. (transitive) To cause to leap.

   to bound a horse

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     , Act V, Scene II, page 93:

     […] 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.

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

   a rubber ball bounds on the floor

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

   to bound a ball on the floor

• rebound

Alteration of boun, with -d partly for euphonic effect and partly by association with Etymology 1, above.

bound (comparative more bound, superlative most bound)

1. (obsolete) Ready, prepared.
2. Ready to start or go (to); moving in the direction (of).

   Which way are you bound?

   Is that message bound for me?

• Dubon

bound

1. Alternative form of band