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Having the quality of contracting, binding, or compressing. Thomson.

To knit or bind together; to unite closely. [Obs.] Feltham. The whole world's frame, which is contexted only by commerce and contracts. R. Junius.

Of, pertaining to, or resembling, the family of plants of which the bindweed and the morning-glory are common examples.

A large genus of plants having monopetalous flowers, including the common bindweed (C. arwensis), and formerly the morning-glory, but this is now transferred to the genus Ipomæa. The luster of the long convolvuluses That coiled around the stately stems. Tennyson.

of sin; the cords of vanity. The knots that tangle human creeds, The wounding cords that bind and strain The heart until it bleeds. Tennyson.

Consisting of, or like, cork; dry shriveled up. Bind fast hiss corky arms. Shak.

To agree (with); to enter into a formal agreement; to bind one's self by contract; to make a stipulation. Jupiter covenanted with him, that it should be hot or cold, wet or dry, . . . as the tenant should direct. L'Estrange. And they covenanted with him for thyrty pieces of silver. Matt. xxvi. 15.

Hence, to bind together; to unite. The . . . fabric of universal justic is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts. Burke.

To bind up; to bandage.

A binding up; a bandaging. Wiseman.

again a power of the first rank. Macaulay. Dependent covenant or contract (Law), one not binding until some connecting stipulation is performed. -- Dependent variable (Math.), a varying quantity whose changes are arbitrary, but are regarded as produced by changes in another variable, which is called the independent v…

from to, or unto. Acts of Parliament derogatory from the power of subsequent Parliaments bind not. Blackstone. His language was severely censured by some of his brother peers as derogatory to their other. Macaulay. Derogatory clause in a testament (Law), a sentence of secret character inserted by the testator alone, o…

To press heavily upon; to bear down upon with violence; hence, to constrain or compel; to bind; to distress, torment, or afflict. [Obs.] "Distrained with chains." Chaucer.

lars. -- Double entry. See under Bookkeeping. -- Double floor (Arch.), a floor in which binding joists support flooring joists above and ceiling joists below. See Illust. of Double-framed floor. -- Double flower. See Double, a., 4. -- Double-framed floor (Arch.), a double floor having girders into which the binding…

Something of value given by the buyer to the seller, by way of token or pledge, to bind the bargain and prove the sale. Kent. Ayliffe. Benjamin. Earnest money (Law), money paid as earnest, to bind a bargain or to ratify and prove a sale.

Flexible wood worked into the top of hedge stakes, to bind them together. [Obs.] Tusser.

To bind up; to inclose. Legs . . . embaled in golden buskins. Spenser.

between being filled with broken stone and mortar. Cross layers of stone are interlaid as binders. [R.] Weale.

To bind with a chain; to hold in chains.

To bind in fetters; to enchain. "Enfettered to her love." Shak.