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   bind

   /bʌɪnd/

   verb

   • 1. tie or fasten (something) tightly together: "they bound her hands and feet" Similar tietie upfasten (together)hold togethersecuremake fastattachropestraplashtrusstetherhitchchainfetterpinionshacklehobblemoorOpposite untierelease
   • ▪ restrain (someone) by tying their hands and feet: "the raider then bound and gagged Mr Glenn"
   • ▪ wrap (something) tightly: "her hair was bound up in a towel"
   • ▪ bandage (a wound): "he cleaned the wound and bound it up with a clean dressing" Similar bandagedresscoverwrapswatheswaddlestrap uptape up
   • ▪ (of an object) be encircled by something, typically metal bands, so as to have greater strength: "an ancient oak chest bound with brass braces"
   • 2. stick together or cause to stick together in a single mass: "mix the flour with the coconut and enough egg white to bind them" Similar stickcohere
   • ▪ cause (painting pigments) to form a smooth medium by mixing them with oil.
   • ▪ hold by chemical bonding: "a protein in a form that can bind DNA"
   • ▪ (of a food or medicine) make (someone) constipated: "eating foods that are low in fibre can bind you up"
   • 3. cause (people) to feel united: "it's music that has bound us together" Similar unitejoinbondknit togetherdraw togetheryoke togetherOpposite separate
   • 4. impose a legal or contractual obligation on: "a party who signs a document will normally be bound by its terms"
   • ▪ be hampered or constrained by: "Sarah did not want to be bound by a rigid timetable" Similar constrainrestrictconfinerestraintie hand and foottie downshacklehamperhinderinhibitcramp someone's styleliterary:trammel
   • ▪ make a contractual or enforceable undertaking: formal "the government cannot bind itself as to the form of subsequent legislation" Similar commit oneselfundertakegive an undertakingpledgevowpromisesweargive one's word
   • ▪ indenture (someone) as an apprentice: "he was bound apprentice at the age of sixteen"
   • 5. fix together and enclose (the pages of a book) in a cover: "a small, fat volume, bound in red morocco"
   • 6. trim (the edge of a piece of material) with a decorative strip: "a frill with the edges bound in a contrasting colour" Similar trimhemedgeborderfringerimbandfinisharchaic:purfle
   • 7. (of a quantifier) be applied to (a given variable) so that the variable falls within its scope. For example, in an expression of the form ‘For every x, if x is a dog, x is an animal’, the universal quantifier is binding the variable x.
   • 8. (of a rule or set of grammatical conditions) determine the relationship between (coreferential noun phrases).

   noun

   • 1. a problematical situation: "he is in a bind that gets worse with every passing minute" Similar predicamentawkward situationquandarydilemmaplightdifficult situationcleft stickmessquagmireimpassedouble bindinformal:spottight spothole
   • ▪ a nuisance: informal British "the travelling can be a bit of a bind" Similar nuisanceannoyanceinconvenienceborebothersource of irritationirritantproblemtrialinformal:painpain in the neckpain in the backsideheadachehassledragaggravationpestpain in the buttfair cownarkvulgar slang:pain in the arsepain in the assdated:infliction
   • 2. a statutory constraint: formal "the moral bind of the law"
   • 3. another term for tie
   • 4. another term for bine

   Word Origin Old Englishbindan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German binden, from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit bandh.

   Scrabble Points: 7

   • B

     3

   • I

     1

   • N

     1

   • D

     2

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