binds

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of bind.

   The treaty binds both nations to a lasting ceasefire.

   Cold weather binds the loose soil into hard clumps.

   Note

   The -s form agrees with a singular subject: it binds, the treaty binds, cold binds. It works with an object (the cord binds the bundle) and without one, as when a sliding part binds through friction or a mixture binds into a mass. The same spelling is also the plural noun, so the binds she is in and the rule binds her are different words that happen to match.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of bind.

   The stalled negotiations left both sides in difficult binds.

   He has talked his way out of tighter binds than this one.

   Note

   One plural serves several unrelated nouns: predicaments, things that tie or fasten, the ligatures that group musical notes, a stranglehold on a position. When bind means a twining stem or the hardened clay of coal mines, it can also be a mass noun, and then no plural is needed. You speak of a layer of bind, not binds. Context, not spelling, tells these readings apart.

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