# bound

Pronunciation: say "BOWND" /ˈbaʊnd/

## Verb

1. Simple past and past participle of bind. — simple past and past participle of bind
   - Simple: Simple past and past participle of bind. Use this form for something that already happened.
   - _The treaty bound both nations to a lasting peace._
   - _The workers bound the loose sheaves into neat bundles._
5. To form the boundary of a territory or area; to surround and enclose it.
   - Simple: To form the edge around an area of land.
   - _Dense forests bound the kingdom along its northern frontier._
   - _The river bounded the property to the east and the road to the west._
8. To move forward with long leaps or springing strides, or to make a person or animal leap in this way.
   - Simple: To move with big jumps, or to make an animal jump forward.
   - _Gazelles bound across the savanna whenever a predator approaches._
   - _The retriever bounded down the hillside after the thrown stick._
10. To act as the upper or lower limit of a set of values.
   - Simple: To set the highest or lowest limit of a set of values.
   - _Two simple inequalities bound the entire solution set._
   - _For any input of size n, the square of n bounds the number of steps the program takes._

## Adjective

2. Certain or very likely to happen or to do something.
   - Simple: Sure to happen, or sure to do something.
   - _Such a careless plan was bound to fail eventually._
   - _Given her talent and drive, she is bound to succeed._
3. Headed toward a particular place, or ready to set out for it.
   - Simple: Going toward a place, or ready to leave for it.
   - _The cargo ship was bound for the southern ports when the storm hit._
   - _Travelers bound for the coast packed the early morning buses._
4. Required or obligated to do something, whether by law, duty, or promise.
   - Simple: Having to do something because of a duty or promise.
   - _The witness was bound by oath to answer every question honestly._
   - _As a guardian, he is bound to act in the child's best interest._
7. Confined to a particular place, or prevented from moving by conditions such as illness, weather, or terrain.
   - Simple: Not able to leave a place, for example because of illness or bad weather.
   - _The elderly man, bound to his apartment by frailty, watched the street below._
   - _For most of the term the recovering student was bound to the dormitory._

## Noun

6. A boundary or border marking the edge of a territory, which one crosses to enter or leave it.
   - Simple: An edge or line that marks where an area of land ends.
   - _Stone markers still show the old bounds of the parish, running from the mill to the edge of the woods._
   - _Cattle were never allowed to stray beyond the bounds of the estate._
9. A value greater than or equal to every value in a given set (an upper bound), or less than or equal to every value in it (a lower bound).
   - Simple: A number that marks the highest or lowest limit of a set of values.
   - _The proof established an upper bound on the function's growth._
   - _Engineers calculated a safe lower bound for the bridge's load capacity._
11. A large jump or leap, including a spring from one foot to the other in dancing.
   - Simple: A big jump forward.
   - _The mountain goat crossed the gap in a remarkable bound._
   - _She covered the last few feet of the trail in two easy bounds._

## Noun

12. A bounce or rebound of a moving object after it strikes a surface. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A bounce, the way a ball jumps back after hitting something.
   - _The fielder misjudged the ball's bound and let it slip past him._
   - _On the second bound the ball leapt clean over the low wall._

## Verb

13. To spring back after hitting a surface, or to make something spring back in this way; to bounce. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To bounce off something, or to make something bounce.
   - _The ball would bound off the sidewalk and into the gutter._
   - _The grounder bounded off a rock in the infield and sailed over the shortstop's head._

## Adjective

14. Of a person, constipated; unable to move the bowels easily. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Describes someone who is constipated and cannot easily pass waste from the body.
15. Ready; prepared and equipped to act or set out. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Ready and fully prepared to set out or act.

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Of a morpheme or element, unable to stand alone as a free word and required to attach to another form.
- (adjective) Of a variable, constrained by a quantifier such as "for all" or "there exists," rather than free.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4, 7, 14** — This comes from Middle English past-tense and past-participle forms like bound and bounden, from Old English bund- and (ġe)bunden. It is related to the verb "bind."
**Meanings 2–3, 15** — This comes from Middle English bownde, an altered form of boun, from Old Norse búinn, the past participle of búa ("to prepare"). The final -d was added partly for sound and partly by association with the "bind" sense.
**Meanings 6, 9** — Medieval Latin butina, later bodina ("a bound, limit"), passed into Old French as bunne and then into Middle English as bounde.
**Meanings 5, 10** — This comes from Middle English bounden, formed from the noun "bound."
**Meanings 8, 11–13** — French bondir meant "leap, bound," and originally "make a loud resounding noise." It perhaps comes from Late Latin bombitāre ("hum, buzz"), a frequentative verb based on Latin bombus ("a humming or buzzing"). English took it as Middle English *bounden, which is attested as bounten.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bound (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).