Forms: 3–4 bun, bune, 4–5 bon(e, 4–9 boun(e, bown(e, -nn(e, 6 bond, 7–9 dial. boon(e, 9 dial. bawn, 6– bound. [a. ON. búinn, Norweg. būen, pa. pple. of búa to get ready, appearing first in the north as būn, afterwards in ME. boun; the added d in the mod. form may be due in part to its being regarded as the pa. pple. of the derived verb BOUN, and in part to confusion with BOUND ppl. a.2 obliged; but cf. other instances as in Mahound, sound, compound, astound, for Mahoun, soun, compoun, astoun, also the vulgar gownd, drownd, etc.]
† 1. Ready, prepared: said both of persons and things. Of persons: Dressed, attired. Also (in 14th c.) At hand, present. Often pleonastically ready boun, ready and boun. Obs.
c. 1200. Ormin, 2329. Loe her icc amm ammbohht all bun To follȝhenn Godess wille.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11595. Son was ioseph redi bun. Ibid., 14376. Namli þas þat has ben bune [Trin. nere] Quen he vpraisid lazarune.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Franklin’s T., 775. She was bown to goon the wey forth right.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 173. And bed hem alle ben boun · beggeres and oþere.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 2756. Bowne on hor best wise in hor bright wedis.
1470. Harding, Chron., viii. i. He to paye was so readye and bowne For his vitayle.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, 162. At the northgate they were redy bowne.
c. 1550. Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 133. Pluck vp ȝour herts, and make ȝow bowne.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iii. 41. Like a man to double businesse bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin.
1768. Ross, Helenore, 93 (Jam.). The squire … to find her shortly makes him bown.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., IV. iii. A band of war Has for two days been ready boune.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 147. Earl Walter … For battle made him boun’.
1853. G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., I. 228. These … are boon to ride the Borders as in the good olden time.
2. Prepared or purposing to go, starting, directing one’s course, destined. With for (to, into obs.), or adv. of motion. Phrases, Homeward bound, outward bound.
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 3788. When thai saw him theder bown.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., I. xii. 33. Deere frend … whodir art thou bone?
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IX. vii. 21. Quhidder ar ȝe boun, ȝe schaw ws plane.
1590. Greene, Arcad. (1616), 51. A Barke bound for Arcadie.
1602. Shaks., Ham., IV. vi. 10. Th’ Ambassadours that was bound for England.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 156, ¶ 1. We may see the Son of Ulysses bound on the same Expedition.
1748. Anson, Voy., III. viii. (ed. 4), 490. He gave out at Macao, that he was bound to Batavia.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, X. xi. You see a Traveller, Bound upon hard adventures.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 635. The ships which were bound for New England were crowded.
1866. Sir J. Herschel, Fam. Lect. Sc., 206. Bound on we know not what errand.
fig. 1548. Gest, Pr. Masse, 118. Where oure confessyon is bounde, lette oure hartes bee represented.
c. 1593. Spenser, Sonn., viii. Angels come to lead fraile mindes to rest In chast desires, on heauenly beauty bound.
3. With infinitive, = about (to), going (to), in a fair way (to). Only dial.; to be distinguished from the similar use of BOUND ppl. a.2, though the latter construction was perhaps suggested by this.
The phrase He is bound to win would, in northern dial., mean merely ‘He is going to win’; in literary Eng. it means ‘He must necessarily win,’ the word here being BOUND ppl. a.2 (Cf. also sense 1, quots. 1470, 1602.)
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v., ‘I believe it is boun to be wet,’ going to be rain.
1862. Life amongst Colliers, 31. He was so violently sick, he declared ‘he was bound to die.’
