Literary notes about bound (AI summary)
The word “bound” carries a richness that allows it to straddle both the literal and the metaphorical in literature. It is often employed to denote physical restraint—characters are tied up or confined, as when cords secure wounds or fetters restrain movement ([1], [2], [3]). Equally, it serves as a marker of obligation, duty, or predetermined destiny, suggesting that one is compelled to act or follow a set path, whether by social contract, moral imperative, or unavoidable fate ([4], [5], [6]). Additionally, "bound" sometimes signals a fixed destination or limit, encapsulating the idea of a journey that is preordained ([7], [8]). This fluidity allows the term to enrich narratives by seamlessly bridging tangible constraints with abstract forces of compulsion and inevitability.
- She wished to untie the cords that bound me, but I prevented her.
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc - My wrists and ankles, and the cords of my legs and arms began to swell, burying the rope that bound them into the swollen flesh.
— from Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - And then he alighted down and reined his horse on the bridle, and bound all the three knights fast with the reins of their own bridles.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Sir Thomas Malory - In this connection the author feels bound to confess that the appetite and the capacity of such men are greatly to be envied.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol - Again, they that are bound to obey, their Pastors, have no power to examine their commands.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - He was bound to get to the top of that hill and stay there, whatever might happen.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad - Perhaps no vessel was bound for such distant parts.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - He said the ship was bound to Hawaii, but that it had to land him first.
— from The island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells
