Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The action of one that binds.
  • noun Something that binds or is used as a binder.
  • noun The manner in which the pages of a book are joined and held together.
  • noun The material that holds the pages of a book together, especially the cover.
  • noun A strip of fabric or tape sewn or attached over or along an edge for protection, reinforcement, or ornamentation.
  • noun Sports The fastening on a ski or board for securing the boot, often releasing automatically to prevent injury.
  • adjective Serving to bind.
  • adjective Uncomfortably tight and confining.
  • adjective Tending to cause constipation.
  • adjective Imposing or commanding adherence to a commitment, an obligation, or a duty.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Serving to bind, fasten, or connect; making fast.
  • Having power to bind or oblige; obligatory: as, a binding engagement.
  • Astringent.
  • Causing constipation; constipating.
  • noun The act or action of making fast, securing, uniting, etc., in any sense of the verb bind: as, the binding of prisoners; wire that serves for binding.
  • noun Anything that binds; a bandage; the cover of a book, with the sewing and accompanying work; something that secures the edges of cloth or of a garment.
  • noun In fencing, a method of securing the adversary's sword, consisting in crossing it with a pressure, accompanied with a spring of the wrist.
  • noun plural In ship-building, the beams, transoms, knees, wales, keelson, and other chief timbers used for connecting and strengthening the various parts of a vessel. Also called binders.
  • noun The condition assumed by adhesive soils in hot dry seasons; a similar condition in the soil of flowerpots in which plants have been kept too long or too dry; closeness, dryness, or hardness of texture.
  • noun In machinery, the prevention of free motion in one part of a machine by the sagging or any deviation from a straight line of another portion.
  • noun A projection of a part of a structure or machine by which parts intended to touch are prevented from coming into perfect contact.
  • noun Nautical, a wrought-iron ring around a dead-eye.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act or process of one who, or that which, binds.
  • noun Anything that binds; a bandage; the cover of a book, or the cover with the sewing, etc.; something that secures the edge of cloth from raveling.
  • noun (Naut.) The transoms, knees, beams, keelson, and other chief timbers used for connecting and strengthening the parts of a vessel.
  • adjective That binds; obligatory.
  • adjective (Arch.) the main timber in double flooring.
  • adjective (Arch.) the secondary timber in double-framed flooring.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Assigning something that one will be held to.
  • noun An item (usually rope, tape, or string) used to hold two or more things together.
  • noun The spine of a book where the pages are held together.
  • noun sewing A finishing on a seam or hem of a garment
  • noun programming The association of a named item with an element of a program.
  • verb Present participle of bind.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective executed with proper legal authority
  • noun the protective covering on the front, back, and spine of a book
  • noun one of a pair of mechanical devices that are attached to a ski and that will grip a ski boot; the bindings should release in case of a fall
  • noun strip sewn over or along an edge for reinforcement or decoration
  • noun the capacity to attract and hold something
  • noun the act of applying a bandage

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • On a guitar, the strip(s) of wood, plastic, or celluloid that surround the outer edges of the soundboard. Although they are usually decorative (some ornately so), they actually serve to seal and strengthen the end- and cross-grain edges of the soundboard.

    Also see purfling.

    November 15, 2007

  • Citation at uncleft.

    November 14, 2008