bind

Etymology

From Middle English binden, from Old English bindan, from Proto-West Germanic *bindan, from Proto-Germanic *bindaną (compare West Frisian bine, Dutch binden, Low German binnen, German binden, Danish binde), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéndʰ-e-ti, from *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”). Compare Welsh benn (“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.

verb

1. (intransitive) To tie; to confine by any ligature.
2. (intransitive) To cohere or stick together in a mass.
   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  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. (figurative) To oblige, restrain, or hold, by authority, law, duty, promise, vow, affection, or other social tie.
   to bind the conscience  to bind by kindness  bound by affection  commerce binds nations to each other
   In the concluding whereof Sir Thomas More so worthily handled himself, procuring in our league far more benefits unto this realm, than at that time, by the king or his council was thought possible to be compassed, that for his good service in that voyage, the king, when he after made him Lord Chancellor, caused the Duke of Norfolk openly to declare to the people, as you shall hear hereafter more at large, how much all England was bounden unto him. 1626, William Roper, S. W. Singer, The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatnes. Or The Life of Syr Thomas More Knight, sometime Lo. Chancellour of England, new revised and corrected edition, Paris [i.e. Saint-Omer]: [Printed at the English College Press], →OCLC; republished as The Life of Sir Thomas More, by His Son-in-law, William Roper, Esq.[…], Chiswick, London: From the press of C[harles] Whittingham, for R. Triphook,[…], 1822, →OCLC, page 36
   He'll mind, I reckon, not getting any work out'n me, but I won't be bounden to him any longer. How can he keep me if I ain't bounden to him? 1963, William A. Owens, chapter 2, in Look to the River, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum; republished as Look to the River (Texas Tradition Series; 8), Fort Worth, Tex.: Texas Christian University Press, 1988, →OCLC, page 20
9. (law) To put (a person) under definite legal obligations, especially, under the obligation of a bond or covenant.
10. (law) To place under legal obligation to serve.
    to bind an apprentice  bound out to service
11. (transitive) To protect or strengthen by applying a band or binding, as the edge of a carpet or garment.
12. (transitive, archaic) 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
13. (transitive) To cover, as with a bandage.
    to bind up a wound
14. (transitive, archaic) To prevent or restrain from customary or natural action, as by producing constipation.
    Certain drugs bind the bowels.
15. (transitive) To put together in a cover, as of books.
    The three novels were bound together.
16. (transitive, chemistry) To make two or more elements stick together.
17. (transitive, programming) 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
18. (transitive, programming) To process one or more object modules into an executable program.
19. (UK, dialect) 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
20. (intransitive, LGBT) 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

1. That which binds or ties.
2. A troublesome situation; a problem; a predicament or quandary.
3. Any twining or climbing plant or stem, especially a hop vine; a bine.
4. (music) A ligature or tie for grouping notes.
5. (chess) 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.