[ME. bond, a phonetic var. of BAND n.¹ (cf. land lond, stand stond, etc.), used interchangeably with it in early senses; but bond preserved more distinctly the connexion with bind, bound, and is now the leading or exclusive form in branch II.] 

    I. lit. That with or by which a thing is bound.

    1. a. Anything with which one's body or limbs are bound in restraint of personal liberty; a shackle, chain, fetter, manacle. arch. (and only in pl.).

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    b. abstr. Confinement, imprisonment, custody. (In later times only in pl.) arch.

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a1225 St. Marher. 13 u.. ^t haldes me in bondes. c1250 Gen. & Ex. 2075 Ic am..holden in bond. 1330 R. BRUNNE Chron. 123 Arnulf.. was taken als thefe, & abrouht in bond. c1400 Gamelyn 401 Lese me out of bond. c1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 6 Let me neuere falle in boondis of e queed! 1595 SHAKES. John III. iv. 74, I..will againe commit them to their bonds. 1667 MILTON P.L. II. 207 To endure Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain. 1722 SEWEL Hist. Quakers (1795) I. 61 Drunkards, and fighters, and swearers, have their liberty without bonds. 1884 TENNYSON Becket 190 Prate not of bonds.

     c. Our Lady's bonds: pregnancy; confinement at child-birth, accouchement. Obs.

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    2. a. That with which a thing is bound or tied down, or together, so as to keep it in its position or collective form: formerly including metal hoops girding anything; still the regular name for the withe which ties up a fagot, and in various technical senses. Cf. also 13.

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c1340 Cursor M. 1671 (Trin.) Bynde [ e tymber] furste wi balke & bonde. 1420 E.E. Wills (1882) 46, 1 bord mausure with a bond of seluer. 1542-3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, iii, The bonde of euery whiche faggotte to conteine three quarters of a yarde. 1690 LOCKE Hum. Und. II. xxiii, What conceivable Hoops, what Bond he can imagine to hold this mass of Matter. 1879 JEFFERIES Wild Life S. County 123 Binding [the thatch] down with a crosswork of bonds, to prevent the gales..unroofing the rick.

     b. Formerly more generally, ‘string, band, tie’.

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fig. c1250 Gen. & Ex. 2113 Non so wis.. e ku e undon is dremes bond.

     3. A bandage. Obs.

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     4. A quantity bound together; bunch, bundle.

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    II. fig. A restraining or uniting force.

    5. (fig. from 1) Any circumstance that trammels or takes away freedom of action; a force which enslaves the mind through the affections or passion; in pl. trammels, shackles.

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c1250 Gen. & Ex. 2716 Moyses..hente e cherl wi hise wond, And he fel dun in dedes bond. 1398 TREVISA Barth. De P.R. III. xiii. (1495) 57 The soule..muste suffre for the bonde of the body that he is joyned to. c1440 Gesta Rom. ii. 7 Helde in the bond of seruitute of synne. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 57 Thou must cutte away all outwarde bondes whiche..sholde be let or hynderaunce to perfeccyon. 1832 LANDER Exped. Niger II. vi. 129 Nor does the marriage ceremony break the bonds of the woman's slavery. 1871 MORLEY Voltaire (1886) 25 Hindered by the tight bonds of an old order.

    6. a. A constraining force or tie acting upon the mind, and recognised by it as obligatory.

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1330 R. BRUNNE Chron. 260 e bondes of homage & feaute. 1592 WEST Symbol I. I. §2 Therefore it is termed the bond of right or law. 1651 HOBBES Leviath. I. xiv. 65 The Bonds, by which men are bound, and obliged. 1769 Junius Lett. i. 9 Justice is, perhaps, the firmest bond to secure a cheerful submission of the people. a1876 J. H. NEWMAN Hist. Sk. (1876) I. I. iv. 172 What serves as a bond to-day will be equally serviceable to-morrow.

     b. Obligation, duty. Obs.

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    7. a. A uniting or cementing force or influence by which a union of any kind is maintained.

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1382 WYCLIF Ephes. iv. 3 Besy for to kepe vnite of spirit in the bond of pees. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Quinquag. Sunday Collect, Charitie, the verie bonde of peace and all vertue. 1690 LOCKE Hum. Und. III. xi, Speech being the great Bond that holds Society together. 1789 BELSHAM Ess. I. viii. 163 An urgent and obvious want of some common bond of union. 1820 W. IRVING Sk. Bk. I. 43 The only bond that can keep hearts together unreserved community of thought and feeling.

    b. Senses 6, 7, and 8 seem to be present in the bond(s of wedlock or matrimony.

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1552 HULOET, Bonde of matrimonye or wedlocke. 1601 SHAKES. Jul. C. II. i. 280 Within the Bond of Marriage. 1645 MILTON Tetrach. Wks. 1738 I. 241 That divorce which finally dissolves the bond, and frees both parties to a second Marriage. 1712 HUGHES Spect. No. 525 1 He is ready to enter into the bonds of matrimony. 1859 TENNYSON Elaine 1200 Our bond is not the bond of man and wife.

    8. a. An agreement or engagement binding on him who makes it.    b. A covenant between two or more persons.

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1330 R. BRUNNE Chron. 311 If e Kyng..had mad at bond, & drawen it. c1386 CHAUCER Frankl. T. 806, I yow relesse..euery surement and euery bond That ye han maad to me. c1500 Lancelot 1673 O kingis word shuld be a kingis bonde. 1535 COVERDALE Josh. ix. 11 We are youre seruauntes, therfore make now a bonde with vs. a1564 BECON Demands Holy Script. in Prayers, &c. (1844) 618 This confirmation is as it were a discharge of the godfathers bounds. c1610 SIR J. MELVIL Mem. (1735) 12 A Bond offensive and defensive. 1759 ROBERTSON Hist. Scot. I. VII. 496 To unite the party a bond of confederacy was formed. 1810 COLERIDGE Friend (1865) 171 The whole treaty of Amiens is little more than a perplexed bond of compromise respecting Malta. 1833 MARRYAT P. Simple (1863) 145 My word's as good as my bond. 1851 Coal-tr. Terms Northumbrld. & Durh. 8 Bond, the agreement to hire between coal owners and pitmen.

     c. to enter bonds: to give a bond, pledge oneself (obs.). to put under bonds: see quot.

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    III. Legal and technical senses.

    9. a. Eng. Law. A deed, by which A (known as the obligor) binds himself, his heirs, executors, or assigns to pay a certain sum of money to B (known as the obligee), or his heirs, etc.
  A may bind himself to this payment absolutely and unconditionally, in which case the deed is known as a single or simple bond (simplex obligatio): bonds in this form are obsolete. Or a condition may be attached that the deed shall be made void by the payment, by a certain date, of money, rent, etc. due from A to B, or by some other performance or observance, the sum named being only a penalty to enforce the performance of the condition, in which case the deed is termed a penal bond.

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    b. Scotch Law. A mortgage.

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    10. A document of this nature (but not necessarily or usually in the form of an ordinary bond) issued by a government or public company borrowing money: in modern use synonymous with debenture.

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    11. a. Surety; one who becomes bail.

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    b. U.S. Law. = bail-bond s.v. BAIL n.¹ 7.    c. = BAIL n.¹ 5a, esp. in phr. on bond.

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    12. in bond: (goods liable to customs-duty) stored in special warehouses (known as bonded or bonding warehouses or stores) under charge of custom-house officers, till it is convenient to the importer to pay the customs-duty and take possession. The importer on entering the goods pledges himself by bond to redeem them by paying the duty. So to take out of bond, release from bond.

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    13. Technical uses:    a. Bricklaying and Masonry. The connexion or union of the bricks or stones in a wall or structure by making them overlap and hold together; a method of disposing the bricks in a wall by which the whole is bound into one compact mass: as in English bond, that in which the bricks are placed in alternate courses of ‘headers’ (bricks laid with their ends towards the face of the wall or structure) and ‘stretchers’ (bricks laid longitudinally); also English cross bond (see quots.); Flemish bond, that in which each course consists of alternate ‘headers’ and ‘stretchers’; garden bond, etc.; also a brick or stone placed lengthways through a wall to bind and strengthen it, a binder, bond stone.    b. Carpentry. The jointing or fastening of two or more pieces of timber together; also in pl. the timbers used for strengthening the walls of a building.    c. Slating. The distance which the lower edge of one roofing-slate or tile extends beyond the nail of the one below it.

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    d. Electr. A metallic connection between conductors forming part of an electric circuit, as between the abutting or adjoining rails of an electric railway line.

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    e. Chem. = LINKAGE. Also attrib.

								1884	1962 1938 1936

1884 FRANKLAND & JAPP Inorg. Chem. viii. 58 Each unit of atom-fixing power will be named a bond, a term which involves no hypothesis as to the nature of the connexion. 1936 Discovery Nov. 339/1 It is convenient in chemistry to show the linking between any two atoms by means of a line or lines, commonly called bonds. 1938 Ann. Reg. 1937 346 The view [was] advanced that spontaneous mutations are mono-molecular reactions produced by thermal agitation when this oversteps the energy threshold of the chemical bonds. 1962 S. GLASSTONE Textbk. Physical Chem. (ed. 2) viii. 588 The bond energy..is the average amount of energy required to dissociate bonds of the same type in 1 mole of a given compound.

    IV. 14. Comb., as (sense 1) bond-led, -stript (stripped of bonds) adjs.; (sense 7) bond-friend; (sense 9) bond-creditor, -debt; (sense 10) bond-salesman; (sense 13) bond-piece; bond paper, a paper of superior manufacture used for bonds and other documents; also simply bond in some trade-names of writing paper; bond-stone = BONDER; bond-timber (see quot.); bond washing (see quots.); hence bond washer. Also BOND-HOLDER. For bail-bond, bond of caution, corroboration, manrent, presentation, relief, settlement, etc., see under BAIL n.¹ 7, CAUTION, CORROBORATION, etc.

1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4701/3 The *Bond Creditors of Philip, late Earl of Pembroke..are desired..to bring their Bonds. 1768 BLACKSTONE Comm. III. 397 In order to strengthen a bond-creditor's security.

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1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4343/8 The Bond-Creditors..are desired to meet the Administrator..to certifie their said *Bond Debts. 1858 LD. ST. LEONARDS Handy Bk. Prop. Law xxiv. 186 Where an estate of a deceased debtor is liable to a bond debt, which binds the heir.

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1860 RAWLINSON Herodotus VII. ccxxxvii. IV. 195, Speaking ill of Demaratus, who is my *bond-friend.

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a1618 SYLVESTER Du Bartas, Maidens Blush (1621) 843 The Father makes the Pile: Hereon he layes His *bond-led, blind-led Son.

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a1877 KNIGHT Dict. Mech., *Bond-paper. 1909 Buckeye Informer IX. 214/2 A small quantity of Japan dryer added to heavy black inks will accelerate their drying on linen and bond papers. 1952 A. CHRISTIE Mrs. McGinty's Dead vii. 48 She stretched up to a top shelf for notepaper and envelopes... ‘Here you are, sir, that's a nice blue Bond, and envelopes to match.’

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1862 SMILES Engineers II. 29 The long pieces or stretchers were retained between the two headers or *bond-pieces.

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1925 F. SCOTT FITZGERALD Great Gatsby (1926) iii. 68, I knew the other clerks and young *bond-salesmen by their first names.

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1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 98 *Bond-stones are stones placed with their greatest length going through the thickness of the wall.

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1855 SINGLETON Virgil I. 274 The other..Uplifted to the stars his *bond-stript hands.

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1823 P. NICHOLSON Pract. Build. 219 *Bond-timbers, horizontal pieces, built in stone or brick walls, for strengthening them.

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1785 BURKE Nab. Arcot's Debts Wks. IV. 233 So known and established a *bond-vendor, as the nabob of Arcot, one who keeps himself the largest bond warehouse in the world.

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1959 Times 8 Apr. 17/2 The *bond-washer would buy shares, notably gilt-edged bonds, cum dividend and sell them ex-dividend with the gross investor reclaiming the tax.

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1937 Economist 24 Apr. 220/1 The Chancellor proposes to abolish ‘*bondwashing’ a term used to describe operations by which the owner of securities sells them at a price which covers accrued dividend, and repurchases them ex dividend. 1966 Ibid. 29 Jan. 439/2 Bond-washing also refers to the conversion of (taxable) dividend income into (tax-free) capital gains.

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