[f. BOUND v.2; but cf. F. bond of same meaning.] An elastic spring upward or onward; a leap made in an onward career: said both of inanimate bodies and animals, while leap is used only of the latter. Phrases. † To take at the (first) bound: to take up at the first opportunity, at the outset; to do at once. To take before the bound: to be beforehand with. At a bound: by an instantaneous movement. To advance by leaps and bounds: to make startlingly rapid progress.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D. (Arb.), 70. If you coulde haue take it vp at the first bounde, We should … pastime haue founde.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., V. 73. Youthful and vnhandled colts Fetching mad bounds.
1643. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xvi. 422. They resolved to take the matter at the first bound.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 29. ’Tis good then to put wings unto them, and to take the ball before the bound.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 181. Th’ arch-fellon … At one slight bound high overleap’d all bound Of Hill or highest Wall.
1716. Addison, Ovid’s Met., II. Wks. 1721, I. 163 (J.).
| The horses started with a sudden bound, | |
| And flung the reins and chariot to the ground. |
1839. Bailey, Festus, vii. At every bound I see, I feel The earth rush round.
1848. W. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., ii. (1879), 26. He plunges at a bound into the east.
