bonded

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past tense and past participle of bond.

   The team bonded during the long expedition.

   A protective film bonded tightly to the glass surface.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs: the simple past (they bonded quickly) and the participle behind have bonded and was bonded. The emotional meaning takes no object, so people simply bond, or bond with each other. The glue, chemical, financial and customs meanings take one, so only those turn passive: the panels were bonded. That passive participle is the bridge to the adjective for joined materials.

2. 2
   adjective

   Joined securely by means of adhesive, a heat process, or pressure.

   The laminate's bonded layers resisted moisture far better than the older boards.

   Inspectors checked whether the bonded seams could withstand high pressure.

   Similarfused

   Note

   Engineers use it most often in compounds that name the binder: resin-bonded glass fiber is valued because it saves weight, even in electric locomotives. Glued, heat-sealed and pressed joints all qualify. Like the other adjectives here, it does not grade. A seam is bonded or it is not, so very bonded sounds wrong.

3. 3
   adjective

   Secured by a financial bond, as with goods kept under guarantee until duties or taxes are paid.

   The shipment remained in a bonded facility while the importer arranged payment.

   Customs released the bonded liquor only after the excise duty cleared.

   Note

   A customs word: goods wait in a bonded warehouse until the duty on them is paid, and the duty itself can be called bonded, as in bonded duties. The bond is a guarantee to the authorities, not a glue. So the word attaches to cargo, premises and payments rather than to materials, and it does not grade: goods are bonded or they are not.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of American whiskey, made and bottled in accordance with federal bonding regulations; equivalent to bottled in bond.

   Collectors prize bonded bourbon for its consistent strength and provenance.

   The label confirmed the rye was bonded and aged a full four years.

   Note

   The word is shorthand for bottled in bond, a label term from US spirits law. It means one distiller, one distilling season, one distillery, at least four years in a federally supervised warehouse, and bottling at 100 proof. Peter Benchley's Jaws (1974) gives the hard-living Harry Meadows bonded Bourbon. The bond is the government warehouse, a close cousin of the customs sense.

Showing meanings only. Show all 4