Wiktionary

bound

See also: -bound and Bound

English

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈbaʊnd/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aʊnd

Etymology 1

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From Middle English bound, bund (preterite) and bounden, bunden, ibunden, ȝebunden (past participle), from Old English bund- and bunden, ġebunden respectively. See bind.

Verb

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bound

  1. simple past and past participle of bind
    I bound the splint to my leg.
    I had bound the splint with duct tape.

Adjective

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bound (not comparable)

  1. (with infinitive) Obliged (to).
    You are not legally bound to reply.
  2. (linguistics, of a morpheme) That cannot stand alone as a free word.
  3. (mathematics, logic, of a variable) Constrained by a quantifier.
  4. (dated) Constipated; costive.
  5. Confined or restricted to a certain place.
    railbound
  6. Unable to move in certain conditions.
    snowbound
Antonyms
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  • (antonym(s) of “logic: constrained by a quantifier”): free
Hyponyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English bownde, alternation (with -d partly for euphonic effect and partly by association with Etymology 1 above) of Middle English boun, from Old Norse búinn, past participle of búa (“to prepare”).

Adjective

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bound (comparative more bound, superlative most bound)

  1. (obsolete) Ready, prepared.
    • 1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 4.III:
      This certain,—that a band of war / Has for two days been ready boune, / At prompt command to march from Doune […] .
  2. 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?
    • 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:
      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.
  3. (with infinitive) Very likely (to), certain to
    They were bound to come into conflict eventually.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Bad Moon Rising”:
      Don’t go around tonight— / Well, it’s bound to take your life: / There’s a bad moon on the rise.
Derived terms
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terms derived from the adjective bound ("moving in the direction of")
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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

Noun

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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.
    • 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:
      Wyth cry unreverent,
      Before the sacrament,
      Wythin the holy church bowndis,
      That of our fayth the grownd is.
    • 1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 27:
      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[.]
  3. (mathematics) A value which is known to be greater or smaller than a given set of values.
    Hyponyms: upper bound, lower bound
Derived terms
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terms derived from the noun bound ("boundary, limit")
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 4

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From Middle English bounden, from the noun (see above).

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To surround a territory or other geographical entity; to form the boundary of.
    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.
    • 1884, Alfred Ronald Conkling, Appleton's Guide to Mexico, page 25:
      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'; […]
    • 1960 September, “Talking of Trains: News in Brief”, in Trains Illustrated, page 523:
      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.). . . .
  2. (transitive, mathematics) To be the bound of.
Derived terms
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terms derived from bound (verb: limit)
Translations
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Etymology 5

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From Middle English *bounden (attested as bounten), from French bondir (“leap", "bound", originally "make a loud resounding noise”); perhaps from Late Latin bombitāre (“hum, buzz”), frequentative verb, from Latin bombus (“a humming or buzzing”).

Noun

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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.
    • 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:
      Balzo, a bound of a ball
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To leap, move by jumping.
    The rabbit bounded down the lane.
    • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Madeleine”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 3, page 19:
      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; […]
      An adjective use.
    • 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.
  2. (transitive) To cause to leap.
    to bound a horse
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase 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
Derived terms
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Translations
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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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bound

  1. Alternative form of band
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