Word.ws English Dictionary

bind

/ˈbaɪ̯nd/

bind verb: to tie; to confine by any ligature.

Verb

bind (third-person singular simple present binds, present participle binding, simple past bound or (nonstandard) binded, past participle bound or (nonstandard) binded or (archaic, rare) bounden or (obsolete) ybound or (obsolete) ybounden)

  1. (intransitive) To tie; to confine by any ligature.
    • They that reap must sheaf and bind.c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (intransitive) To cohere or stick together in a mass.
    • We’ll throw it in just to make the cheese more binding.
    • unlocks their [clay’s] binding Quality.1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC
  3. (intransitive) To be restrained from motion, or from customary or natural action, as by friction.
    • I wish I knew why the sewing machine binds up after I use it for a while.
  4. (intransitive) To exert a binding or restraining influence.
    • These are the ties that bind.
  5. (transitive) To tie or fasten tightly together, with a cord, band, ligature, chain, etc.
    • To bind grain in bundles.
    • To bind a prisoner.
  6. (transitive) To confine, restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind.
    • Gravity binds the planets to the sun.
    • Frost binds the earth.
  7. (transitive) To couple.
  8. (figuratively) To oblige, restrain, or hold, by authority, law, duty, promise, vow, affection, or other social tie.
    • to bind the conscience.
    • I am much bounden to your Maieſty.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  9. To put (a person) under definite legal obligations, especially, under the obligation of a bond or covenant.
  10. To place under legal obligation to serve.
    • To bind an apprenticeship.
    • To bound out to service.
    Synonyms:
    indenture
  11. (transitive) To protect or strengthen by applying a band or binding, as the edge of a carpet or garment.
  12. (archaic, transitive) To make fast (a thing) about or upon something, as by tying; to encircle with something.
    • To bind a belt about one.
    • To bind a compress upon a wound.
Show 8 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (transitive) To cover, as with a bandage.
    • To bind up a wound.
    Synonyms:
    bandage, dress
  2. (archaic, transitive) To prevent or restrain from customary or natural action, as by producing constipation.
    • Certain drugs bind the bowels.
  3. (transitive) To put together in a cover, as of books.
    • The three novels were bound together.
  4. (transitive) To make two or more elements stick together.
  5. (transitive) To associate an identifier with a value; to associate a variable name, method name, etc. with the content of a storage location.
    • We bind the variable n to the value 2, and xs to "abcd".2008, Bryan O'Sullivan, John Goerzen, Donald Bruce Stewart, Real World Haskell, page 33
    • You can bind an identifier to an object of a derived type, as you did earlier when you bound a string to an identifier of type obj[…]2009, Robert Pickering, Beginning F#, page 123
  6. (transitive) To process one or more object modules into an executable program.
  7. (UK, dialectal) To complain; to whine about something.
    • "But it's not much good piling up the pix if I can't sell them."
      "Oh do stop binding. Think of something. How will we eat, where will we sleep?"1980, Iris Murdoch, Nuns And Soldiers
  8. (intransitive) To wear a binder so as to flatten one's chest to give the appearance of a flat chest, usually done by trans men.
    • I haven't binded since I got my top surgery.
    • I hear binder tech has improved since I last bound.

Noun

bind (countable and uncountable, plural binds)

  1. (countable) That which binds or ties.
  2. (countable) A troublesome situation; a problem; a predicament or quandary.
  3. Any twining or climbing plant or stem, especially a hop vine; a bine.
  4. (countable) A ligature or tie for grouping notes.
  5. (countable) A strong grip or stranglehold on a position, which is difficult for the opponent to break.
    • the Maróczy Bind
  6. The indurated clay of coal mines, or other overlying substances such as sandstone or shale.

bind meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

bind in Hindi

transitive to tie or fasten tightly together, with a cord, band, ligature, chain, etc.
छांदना chāndnā

bind in Tamil

கட்டு, கட்டுப்படுத்து, பிணை

bind in Marathi

to bind, tighten
कसणे kasṇe

bind in Urdu

to bind; tie
باندھنا bāndhnā
More languagesFewer languages
bind in Bengali
বাঁধানো bãdhanō
bind in Malayalam
ബന്ധിക്കുക bandhikkuka
bind in Kannada
ಕಟ್ಟು kaṭṭu
bind in Punjabi
ਕੱਸਣਾ kassaṇā
bind in Gujarati
બાંધવું bā̃dhvũ
bind in Sanskrit
द्यति dyati, मव्यति mavyati, बन्धति bandhati
bind in Sinhala
බඳිනවා baⁿdinawā
bind in Assamese
বন্ধা bondha, বান্ধা bandha
bind in Nepali
बाँध्नु bā̃dhnu
bind in Arabic
أَسَرَ ʔasara, رَبَطَ rabaṭa
bind in Malay
ikat
bind in Indonesian
ikat, sambung, hubung
bind in Persian
بستن
bind in Thai
โยง yoong
bind in Vietnamese
buộc, cột, trói, ghép cặp
bind in Myanmar
တုပ် tup, ချည် hkyany
Sindhi
ٻَڌَڻُ ḇadhaṇu

Examples of bind in a sentence

  • He bindeth the flouds from ouerflowing, and the thing that is hid, bringeth he foorth to light.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 28:11:
  • Who made our Laws to bind us, not himſelf,1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […]...

All 40 example sentences with bind

Synonyms of bind

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of bind

Forms of bind

Verb
third-person singular presentbinds
present participlebinding
pastbound
past participlebound
past (nonstandard)binded
past participle (nonstandard)binded
past participle (archaic, rare)bounden
past participle (obsolete)ybound
past participle (obsolete)ybounden
Noun
pluralbinds

Past tense of bind: bound

Plural of bind: binds

Origin of bind

From Middle English binden, from Old English bindan, from Proto-West Germanic *bindan, from Proto-Germanic *bindaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéndʰ-e-ti, from *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”). See also West Frisian bine, Dutch binden, Low German binnen, binden, German binden, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk binde, Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish binda; also Welsh ben (“cart”), Latin offendīx (“knot, band”), Lithuanian beñdras (“partner”), Albanian bind (“to convince, to awe, to spell”), Ancient Greek πεῖσμα (peîsma, “cable, rope”), Persian بستن (bastan, “to bind”), Sanskrit बन्धति (bándhati). Doublet of bandana.

Words formed from bind

Phrases with bind

Words that rhyme with bind

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bind

What does bind mean?
Bind means to tie; to confine by any ligature.
What is bind in Hindi?
Bind in Hindi is छांदना (chāndnā). See Bind meaning in Hindi.
How do you use bind in a sentence?
He bindeth the flouds from ouerflowing, and the thing that is hid, bringeth he foorth to light.
What part of speech is bind?
Bind can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce bind?
Bind is pronounced /ˈbaɪ̯nd/.
What is the past tense of bind?
The past tense of bind is bound.

Words near bind in the dictionary

  1. Binche laces
  2. binchotan
  3. Bincombe
  4. bincount
  5. bincounts
  6. bind
  7. bind hand and foot
  8. bind off
  9. bind on equip
  10. bind on pickup
  11. bind over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bind (page history and authors); bind (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कसणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); باندھنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); বাঁধানো (Bengali) (page history and authors); ബന്ധിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಕಟ್ಟು (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਕੱਸਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); બાંધવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); බඳිනවා (Sinhala) (page history and authors); বন্ধা (Assamese) (page history and authors); बाँध्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bind.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.