n. Anything that binds, fastens, confines, or holds together, as a cord, chain, rope, band, or bandage; a ligament.n. Specificallyn. plural Fetters; chains for restraint; hence, imprisonment; captivity.n. A binding or uniting power or influence; cause of union; link of connection; a uniting tie: as, the bonds of affection.n. Something that constrains the mind or will; obligation; duty.n. An agreement or engagement; a covenant between two or more persons.n. [⟨ D. bond, league.] A league or confederation: used of the Dutch-speaking populations of southern Africa.n. In law, an instrument under seal by which the maker binds himself, and usually also his heirs, executors, and administrators (or, if a corporation, their successors), to do or not to do a specified act.n. The state of being in a bonded warehouse or store in charge of custom-house or excise officers: said of goods or merchandise: as, tea and wine still in bond.n. A surety; a bondsman; bail.n. A certificate of ownership of a specified portion of a capital debt due by a government, a city, a railroad, or other corporation to individual holders, and usually bearing a fixed rate of interest.n. In chem., a unit of combining or saturating power equivalent to that of one hydrogen atom.n. In building: The connection of one stone or brick with another made by lapping one over the other as the work is carried up, so that a homogeneous and coherent mass may be formed, which could not be the case if every vertical joint were over that below it. See chain-bond, cross-bond, heart-bond, and phrases below.n. plural The whole of the timbers disposed in the walls of a house, as bond-timbers, wall-plates, lintels, and templets.n. The distance between the nail of one slate in a roof and the lower edge of the slate above it.n. that disposition of bricks in a wall in which the courses are alternately composed entirely of headers, or bricks laid with their heads or ends toward the face of the wall, and of stretchers, or bricks with their length parallel to the face of the wall.n. that disposition of bricks in a wall in which each course is composed of headers and stretchers alternately.To put in bond or into a bonded warehouse, as goods liable for customs or excise duties, the duties remaining unpaid till the goods are taken out, but bonds being given for their payment: as, to bond 1,000 pounds of tobacco.To grant a bond or bond and mortgage on: as, to bond property.To convert into bonds: as, to bond a debt.To place a bonded debt upon: as, to bond a railroad.In building, to bind or hold together (bricks or stones in a wall) by a proper disposition of headers and stretchers, or by cement, mortar, etc. See bond, n., 12.To hold together from being bonded, as bricks in a wall.n. A peasant; a churl.n. A vassal; a serf; one held in bondage to a superior.Subject to the tenure called bondage.In a state of servitude or slavery; not free.Servile; slavish; pertaining to or befitting a slave: as, bond fear.To subject to bondage.n. Same as bond-timber.n. In electricity, the rod, heavy copper wire, or weld which is used to connect the abutting rails of a railway-track to form an electric circuit.n. In Scots law, the surrender of a fee to a superior.To unite the ends of (two adjacent rails,) either by copper wires or cables, or by welding, in order to secure a low-resistance return-circuit for the electric current.
