Word.ws English Dictionary

bound

/ˈbæʊ̯nd/UK/ˈbaʊ̯nd/

bound is the simple past and past participle of bind.

Adjective (1)

bound (not comparable)

  1. (with infinitive) Obliged (to).
    • You are not legally bound to reply.
    • Well, it isn't for me to say. I'm an employee of the firm and bound to stand by it.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
  2. That cannot stand alone as a free word.
  3. Constrained by a quantifier.
  4. (dated) Constipated; costive.
  5. (in-compounds) Confined or restricted to a certain place.
    • railbound
  6. (in-compounds) Unable to move in certain conditions.
    • snowbound

Adjective (2)

bound (comparative more bound, superlative most bound)

  1. (obsolete) Ready, prepared.
    • This certain,—that a band of war / Has for two days been ready boune, / At prompt command to march from Doune […].1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 4.III
  2. Ready to start or go (to); moving in the direction (of).
    • Which way are you bound? —I'm already homeward bound.
    • Is that message bound for me?
  3. (with infinitive) Very likely (to), certain to
    • They were bound to come into conflict eventually.
    • When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

Noun (1)

bound (plural bounds)

  1. (often) A boundary, the border which one must cross in order to enter or leave a territory.
    • I reached the northern bound of my property, took a deep breath and walked on.
    • Somewhere within these bounds you may find a buried treasure.
  2. A value which is known to be greater or smaller than a given set of values.

Verb (1)

bound (third-person singular simple present bounds, present participle bounding, simple past and past participle bounded)

  1. (transitive) To surround a territory or other geographical entity; to form the boundary of.
    • grounds bounded on three sides by a river.
    • France, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra bound Spain.
  2. (transitive) To be the bound of.

Noun (2)

bound (plural bounds)

  1. A sizeable jump, great leap.
    • The deer crossed the stream in a single bound.
  2. A spring from one foot to the other in dancing.
  3. (dated) A bounce; a rebound.
    • Balzo, a bound of a ball1598, John Florio, “Balzo”, in A Worlde of Words, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Edw[ard] Blount, →OCLC

Verb (2)

bound (third-person singular simple present bounds, present participle bounding, simple past and past participle bounded)

  1. (intransitive) To leap, move by jumping.
    • The rabbit bounded down the lane.
    • But when I turn away, / Thou, willing me to stay, / Wooest not, nor vainly wranglest; / But, looking fixedly the while, / All my bounding heart entanglest, / In a golden-netted smile; […]1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Madeleine”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 3, page 19
    Synonyms:
    lollop
  2. (transitive) To cause to leap.
    • to bound a horse
    • […] Or if I might buffet for my Loue, or bound my Horſe for her fauours, I could lay on like a Butcher, and fit like a Iack an Apes, neuer off., Act V, Scene II, page 93
  3. (dated, intransitive) To rebound; to bounce.
    • A rubber ball bounds on the floor.
  4. (dated, transitive) To cause to rebound; to throw so that it will rebound; to bounce.
    • to bound a ball on the floor

Meaning of bind

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.
  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.
  6. (transitive) To confine, restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind.
    • Gravity binds the planets to the sun.

See all 26 meanings of bind

Proper noun capitalized: Bound

Bound

  1. A surname.

Synonyms of bound

Antonyms

Forms of bound

Verb
third-person singular presentbounds
present participlebounding
past participlebounded
pastbounded
alternative form (archaic)bownd
Adjective
comparativemore bound
superlativemost bound
Noun
pluralbounds

Origin of bound

From Middle English bound, bund (preterite) and bounden, bunden, ibunden, ȝebunden (past participle), from Old English bund- and bunden, ġebunden respectively. See bind.

From Middle English bownde, alternation (with -d partly for euphonic effect and partly by association with Etymology 1 above) of Middle English boun, from Old Norse búinn, past participle of búa (“to prepare”).

From Middle English bounde, from Old French bunne, from Medieval Latin bodina, earlier butina (“a bound, limit”).

Words formed from bound

Phrases with bound

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bound

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bound

What does bound mean?
Bound means obliged (to).
What is bound the simple past and past participle of?
Bound is the simple past and past participle of bind.
What part of speech is bound?
Bound can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bound?
Bound is pronounced /ˈbaʊ̯nd/ (UK).

Words near bound in the dictionary

  1. bouncy castle
  2. bouncy castles
  3. bouncy house
  4. bouncy houses
  5. bouncy-bouncy
  6. bound
  7. bound ahead
  8. bound bailiff
  9. bound bailiffs
  10. Bound Brook
  11. bound entropies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bound (page history and authors); Bound (page history and authors); bind (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.

Last updated:

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

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