Word: bind Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *bindaną Proto-West Germanic *bindan Old English bindan Middle English binden English 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. Pronunciation: /ˈbaɪ̯nd/, /ˈbaɪ̯n/ 1. To tie; to confine by any ligature. Labels: intransitive Example: They that reap must sheaf and bind. 2. To cohere or stick together in a mass. Labels: intransitive Example: We’ll throw it in just to make the cheese more binding. Example: unlocks their [clay’s] binding Quality. 3. To be restrained from motion, or from customary or natural action, as by friction. Labels: intransitive Example: I wish I knew why the sewing machine binds up after I use it for a while. 4. To exert a binding or restraining influence. Labels: intransitive Example: These are the ties that bind. 5. To tie or fasten tightly together, with a cord, band, ligature, chain, etc. Labels: transitive Example: To bind grain in bundles. Example: To bind a prisoner. 6. To confine, restrain, or hold by physical force or influence of any kind. Labels: transitive Example: Gravity binds the planets to the sun. Example: Frost binds the earth. 7. To couple. Labels: transitive 8. To oblige, restrain, or hold, by authority, law, duty, promise, vow, affection, or other social tie. Labels: figuratively Example: to bind the conscience. Example: I am much bounden to your Maieſty. 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. Example: To bind an apprenticeship. Example: To bound out to service. 11. To protect or strengthen by applying a band or binding, as the edge of a carpet or garment. Labels: transitive 12. To make fast (a thing) about or upon something, as by tying; to encircle with something. Labels: archaic, transitive Example: To bind a belt about one. Example: To bind a compress upon a wound. 13. To cover, as with a bandage. Labels: transitive Example: To bind up a wound. 14. To prevent or restrain from customary or natural action, as by producing constipation. Labels: archaic, transitive Example: Certain drugs bind the bowels. 15. To put together in a cover, as of books. Labels: transitive Example: The three novels were bound together. 16. To make two or more elements stick together. Labels: transitive 17. To associate an identifier with a value; to associate a variable name, method name, etc. with the content of a storage location. Labels: transitive Example: We bind the variable n to the value 2, and xs to "abcd". Example: 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[…] 18. To process one or more object modules into an executable program. Labels: transitive 19. To complain; to whine about something. Labels: UK, dialectal Example: "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?" 20. To wear a binder so as to flatten one's chest to give the appearance of a flat chest, usually done by trans men. Labels: intransitive Example: I haven't binded since I got my top surgery. Example: I hear binder tech has improved since I last bound.