All 46 Uses of
bound
in
The Odyssey
- So Athena vowed
and under her feet she fastened the supple sandals,
ever-glowing gold, that wing her over the waves
and boundless earth with the rush of gusting winds.†p. 80.8boundless = without boundaries or limitsstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in boundless means without. This is the same pattern you see in words like fearless, homeless, and endless.
- Surely Zeus's court on Olympus must be just like this,
the boundless glory of all this wealth inside!†p. 126.9
- Quickly under his feet he fastened the supple sandals,
ever-glowing gold, that wing him over the waves
and boundless earth with the rush of gusting winds.†p. 154.1
- White-armed Nausicaa led their singing, dancing beat ...
as lithe as Artemis with her arrows striding down
from a high peak—Taygetus' towering ridge or Erymanthusthrilled to race with the wild boar or bounding deer,
and nymphs of the hills race with her,
daughters of Zeus whose shield is storm and thunder,
ranging the hills in sport, and Leto's heart exults
as head and shoulders over the rest her daughter rises,
unmistakable—she outshines them all, though all are lovely.†p. 171.9bounding = leaping or jumping
- Clambering up from the river, big with Zeus's rains,
I bedded down in the brush, my body heaped with leaves,
and a god poured down a boundless sleep upon me, yes,
and there in the leaves, exhausted, sick at heart,
I slept the whole night through
and on to the break of day and on into high noon
and the sun was wheeling down when sweet sleep set me free.†p. 188.7 *boundless = without boundaries or limitsstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in boundless means without. This is the same pattern you see in words like fearless, homeless, and endless.
- I was well on my way down, nearing our ship
when a god took pity on me, wandering all alone;
he sent me a big stag with high branching antlers,
right across my path—the sun's heat forced him down
from his forest range to drink at a river's banks—
just bounding out of the timber when I hit him
square in the backbone, halfway down the spine
and my bronze spear went punching clean through—
he dropped in the dust, groaning, gasping out his breath.†p. 235.6bounding = leaping or jumping
- But now they've swept him across the sea in their swift ship,
they've set him down in Ithaca, sound asleep, and loaded the man
with boundless gifts—bronze and hoards of gold and robes
aye, more plunder than he could ever have won from Troy
if Odysseus had returned intact with his fair share!†p. 290.9boundless = without boundaries or limitsstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in boundless means without. This is the same pattern you see in words like fearless, homeless, and endless.
- She flung over this the long pelt of a bounding deer,
rubbed bare, and gave him a staff and beggar's sack,
torn and tattered, slung from a fraying rope.†p. 300.8 *bounding = leaping or jumping
- I'll shower her myself with boundless gifts.†
p. 421.7boundless = without boundaries or limitsstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in boundless means without. This is the same pattern you see in words like fearless, homeless, and endless.
- One more labor lies in store—
boundless, laden with danger, great and long,
and I must brave it out from start to finish.†p. 463.8
- For one dear son had sailed with King Odysseus,
bound in the hollow ships to the stallion-land of Troy—
the spearman Antiphus—but the brutal Cyclops killed him,
trapped in his vaulted cave, the last man the monster ate.†p. 94.1
- Here's my prophecy, bound to come to pass.†
p. 99.4
- But then,
that day the doom of the gods had bound her to surrender,
Aegisthus shipped the bard away to a desert island,
marooned him there, sweet prize for the birds of prey,
and swept her off to his own house, lover lusting for lover.†p. 116.2
- Now, there's a sheer cliff
plunging steep to the surf at the farthest edge of Gortyn,
out on the mist-bound sea, where the South Wind piles breakers,
huge breakers, left of the headland's horn, toward Phaestos,
i
with only a low reef to block the crushing tides.†p. 116.9
- Nothing could have parted us,
bound by love for each other, mutual delight ...
till death's dark cloud came shrouding round us both.†p. 130.2
- So he urged, and broke the heart inside me,
having to double back on the mist-bound seas,
back to Egypt, that, that long and painful way ...
Nevertheless I caught my breath and answered,
'That I will do, old man, as you command.†p. 139.8
- In every venture the bold man comes off best,
even the wanderer, bound from distant shores.†p. 181.3
- Three plans split their ranks:
either to hack open the hollow vault with ruthless bronze
or haul it up to the highest ridge and pitch it down the cliffs
or let it stand—a glorious offering made to pacify the gods—
and that, that final plan, was bound to win the day.†p. 207.9
- Come,
let me tell you about the voyage fraught with hardship
Zeus inflicted on me, homeward bound from Troy ...
The wind drove me out of Ilium on to Ismarus,
the Cicones' stronghold.†p. 212.8
- Nevertheless I found the nerve to answer, firmly,
'Men of Achaea we are and bound now from Troy!†p. 219.7
- But his plan was bound to fail,
yes, our own reckless folly swept us on to ruin ...
Nine whole days we sailed, nine nights, nonstop.†p. 231.4
- You must be Odysseus, man of twists and turns—
Hermes the giant-killer, god of the golden wand,
he always said you'd come,
homeward bound from Troy in your swift black ship.†p. 240.9
- And she made the outer limits, the Ocean River's bounds
where Cimmerian people have their homes—their realm and city
shrouded in mist and cloud.†p. 250.0
- Never yet have I neared Achaea, never once
set foot on native ground,
always wandering—endless hardship from that day
I first set sail with King Agamemnon bound for Troy,
the stallion-land, to fight the Trojans there.†p. 255.0
- Only the valiant seer Melampus volunteered—
he would drive them home—
but a god's iron sentence bound him fast:
barbarous herdsmen dragged him off in chains.†p. 259.1
- And I saw Sisyphus too, bound to his own torture,
grappling his monstrous boulder with both arms working,
heaving, hands struggling, legs driving, he kept on
thrusting the rock uphill toward the brink, but just
as it teetered, set to topple overtime and again
the immense weight of the thing would wheel it back and
the ruthless boulder would bound and tumble down to the plain again—
so once again he would heave, would struggle to thrust it up,
sweat drenching his body, dust swirling above his head.†p. 269.1
- And I saw Sisyphus too, bound to his own torture,
grappling his monstrous boulder with both arms working,
heaving, hands struggling, legs driving, he kept on
thrusting the rock uphill toward the brink, but just
as it teetered, set to topple overtime and again
the immense weight of the thing would wheel it back and
the ruthless boulder would bound and tumble down to the plain again—
so once again he would heave, would struggle to thrust it up,
sweat drenching his body, dust swirling above his head.†p. 269.3
- And halfway up that cfiffside stands a fog-bound cavern
gaping west toward Erebus, realm of death and darkness—
past it, great Odysseus, you should steer your ship.†p. 274.1
- I alone was to hear their voices, so she said,
but you must bind me with tight chafing ropes
so I cannot move a muscle, bound to the spot,
erect at the mast-block, lashed by ropes to the mast.†p. 276.5
- They bound me hand and foot in the tight ship
erect at the mast-block, lashed by ropes to the mast—
and rowed and churned the whitecaps stroke on stroke.†p. 276.9
- But nowhere could I make her out—and my eyes ached,
scanning that mist-bound rock face top to bottom.†p. 278.6 *
- Drained as we are, night falling fast, you'd have us desert
this haven and blunder off, into the mist-bound seas?†p. 280.3
- They reembarked, now homeward bound for Sidon,
their own noble city, leaving me here behind,
homesick in my heart ..."
As his story ended,
goddess Athena, gray eyes gleaming, broke into a smile
and stroked him with her hand, and now she appeared a woman,
beautiful, tall and skilled at weaving lovely things.†p. 295.8
- And my house grew by leaps and bounds,
I walked among the Cretans, honored, feared as well.†p. 309.1
- Well, he smoothly talked me round and off we sailed,
Phoenicia-bound, where his house and holdings lay.†p. 310.9
- Then, when the months and days had run their course
and the year wheeled round and the seasons came again,
he conned me aboard his freighter bound for Libya,
pretending I'd help him ship a cargo there for sale
but in fact he'd sell me there and make a killing!†p. 310.9
- That year Melampus,
bound by cruel chains in the halls of Phylacus,
suffered agonies—all for Neleus' daughter Pero,
that and the mad spell a Fury, murderous spirit,
cast upon his mind.†p. 326.9
- But Zeus ruined it all—god's will, no doubt—
when he shipped me off with a roving band of pirates
bound for Egypt, a long hard sail, to wreck my life.†p. 368.2
- Even then Athena had bound him fast to death
at the hands of Prince Telemachus and his spear.†p. 381.0
- A heavy gale had landed him on our coast,
driven him way off course, rounding Malea's cape
when he was bound for Troy.†p. 396.7
- As for myself, though,
some god has sent me pain that knows no bounds.†p. 406.9
- The cowherd quietly bounded out of the house
to lock the gates of the high-stockaded court.†p. 437.0
- Off they ran to the storeroom, unseen by him insideMelanthius, rummaging after arms, deep in a dark recess
as the two men took their stand, either side of the doorposts,
poised till the goatherd tried to cross the doorsill ...
one hand clutching a crested helmet, the other
an ample old buckler blotched with mildew,
the shield Laertes bore as a young soldier once
but there it lay for ages, seams on the handstraps split—
Quick, they rushed him, seized him, haled him back by the hair,
flung him down on the floor, writhing with terror, bound him
hand and foot with a chafing cord, wrenched his limbs
back, back till the joints locked tight—
just as Laertes' cunning son comma†p. 445.4
- You're bound to see the Morning rising up from the Ocean,
mounting her golden throne—at just the hour you always
drive in goats to feast the suitors in the hall!†p. 445.6
- I'm bound to learn of it later, I am sure—
what's the harm if I hear of it tonight?†p. 464.2
- But just as she bound off that great shroud and washed it,
spread it out—glistening like the sunlight or the moon—
just then some wicked spirit brought Odysseus back,
from god knows where, to the edge of his estate
where the swineherd kept his pigs.†p. 473.1
Definitions:
-
(1)
(bound as in: south-bound lanes) traveling in a particular direction or to a specific location
-
(2)
(bound as in: bound to succeed) almost certain to; or determined to
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(3)
(bound as in: bound together or bound by law) constrained and/or held together or wrappedThe sense of constrained, can mean tied up or obligated depending upon the context. For example:
- "Her wrists were bound." -- tied up
- "I am bound by my word." -- required or obligated (in this case to keep a promise)
- "He is muscle bound." -- prevented from moving easily (due to having such large, tight muscles)
The exact meaning of the senses of held together or wrapped also depend upon context. For example:- "The pages of the book are bound with glue." -- held together physically
- "The book is bound in leather." -- wrapped or covered
- "The United States and England are bound together by a common language." -- connected or united (tied together, figuratively)
- "She cleaned the wound and bound it with fresh bandages." -- wrapped
- "She is wheelchair-bound." -- connected (moves with a wheelchair because she is unable to walk)
- "The jacket has bound buttonholes." -- edges wrapped by fabric or trim rather than stitches
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(4)
(bound as in: out of bounds) a boundary or limit
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(5)
(bound as in: The deer bound across the trail.) to leap or jump
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(6)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
For more specialized senses of bound, see a comprehensive dictionary. For example, the word can refer to constipation and has specialized meanings in law, chemistry, logic, and linguistics.