Also 4–6 bynde: see BINE. [f. BIND v.]
1. Anything used to bind or tie; a band or tie. Our Lady’s binds (obs.): confinement at childbirth. Cf. BEND sb.1 1 d, BAND sb.1 1 c.
a. 1000. Cod. Dip. (Kemble), VI. 133 (Bosw.). Hio an Ceoldryþe hyre betstan bindan.
c. 1400. Bidding Prayer, in York Manual (1874), App. 221. Wymmen þat bethe in oure lady byndes.
b. A connecting timber in a ship.
1803. Hull Advertiser, 9 April, 2/1. The ship … had new binds and new top sides.
1833. T. Richardson, Merc. Mar. Archit., 6. The best place for the upper bind is about 3/4 of the midship height.
c. Music. ‘A curved line (also called tie) placed between two notes of the same degree, to denote the continuance of the sound, during the value of both, instead of the repercussion of the second note.’ Grove, Dict. Mus., 1880. Also applied by some to the BRACE or ACCOLADE.
1880. Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 242/2. The employment of the bind is a necessity whenever a sound is required to be of a duration which cannot be expressed by any single note.
2. A twining or climbing stem of a plant; a flexible shoot. a. esp. The climbing stem of the hop-plant. b. Used to name varieties of the hop, as grey-bind, red-bind, white-bind, Now BINE.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., C. 444. God … ded growe of þat soyle Þe fayrest bynde … þat euer burne wyste.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 36. Bynde, a twyste of a vyne.
1792. Gentl. Mag., April, 343. Hop Stalks or Binds.
1815. Encycl. Brit., III. 618. Bind, a country word for a stalk of hops. [See BINE.]
3. Hence, used as the name of certain climbing plants that wind round the stems of other plants or trees. † a. Honeysuckle or WOOD-BINE. b. = BINDWEED (Convolvulus and Polygonum).
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 36. Bynde or Wode bynde, corrigiola, vitella.
1575. Gascoigne, Wks. (1587), 189. Tares and Byndes can pluck good grayne adowne.
1878. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Common Bind, Convolvulus [wild].
4. Indurated clay, occurring between coal-strata.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 297. Indurated clay, which the miners commonly call clunch, and when much mixed with calx of iron, bind. Ibid., 301. Black shale, iron stone, shale, blue bind.
1844. H. Hutchinson, Pract. Drainage, 173. Red clay and skerry or bine.
1864. Derby Merc., 7 Dec. The fall of bind suddenly liberating a quantity of bad air.
b. A thin stratum of shale or stone.
1748. Phil. Trans., XLV. 126. The upper Pillars … lying between two Binds of Stone like Seams of Coal.
5. A measure of quantity in salmon and eels.
1477. Sc. Act Jas. III. (1597), § 76. Of the bind of Salmond. Ibid. (1487), § 131. The Barrell bind of Salmound sould … contein the assyse and mesour of fourteene gallonis.
1667. E. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. III. ii. (1743), 154. Eels have 25 to the Strike; 10 Strikes to the Bind.
a. 1728. Kennett, Gloss. (MS. Lansd. 1033). A Bind of eels … consisted of ten sticks, and every stick of twenty five eels. [In mod. Dicts.]
6. Capacity, measure, limit, size. Aboon my bind: beyond my power. Sc. Cf. BEND.
1551. Acts Mar., xi. (Jam.). The wylde Guse of the greit bind, iis.
1560. Rolland, Crt. Venus, I. 122. His hois they war … Of biggest bind.
1823. Scott, St. Ronan’s, i. Their bind was just a Scots pint over-head, and a tappit-hen.
