bands

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of band.

   Three local bands competed for the top prize that night.

   Radio signals travel on several different frequency bands.

   Note

   One spelling gathers many kinds of strip: the bands that hold a bundle together, the bands sewn onto clothing to bind or ornament it, the bands across a book's spine, the belts that drive a machine, and stripes of color or carved ornament running along a wall. Every one takes a plain -s in the plural, so the form never tells you which band is meant. The nouns around it do.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of band.

   The researcher bands every captured owl to track its movements.

   Whenever danger looms, the herd bands together for protection.

   Note

   Here the -s marks a present-tense verb with two quite different behaviors. With an object it fastens or marks: a ringer bands a bird's leg, and a school bands its pupils by ability. Without an object it gathers people for a shared purpose, and then it reaches for together, as in "a town bands together." The obsolete band that once served as a past tense of bind never takes this ending, because past forms carry no -s.

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