binding

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The action of one that binds.
• noun Something that binds or is used as a binder.
• noun The manner in which the pages of a book are joined and held together.
• noun The material that holds the pages of a book together, especially the cover.
• noun A strip of fabric or tape sewn or attached over or along an edge for protection, reinforcement, or ornamentation.
• noun Sports The fastening on a ski or board for securing the boot, often releasing automatically to prevent injury.
• adjective Serving to bind.
• adjective Uncomfortably tight and confining.
• adjective Tending to cause constipation.
• adjective Imposing or commanding adherence to a commitment, an obligation, or a duty.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Serving to bind, fasten, or connect; making fast.
• Having power to bind or oblige; obligatory: as, a binding engagement.
• Astringent.
• Causing constipation; constipating.
• noun The act or action of making fast, securing, uniting, etc., in any sense of the verb bind: as, the binding of prisoners; wire that serves for binding.
• noun Anything that binds; a bandage; the cover of a book, with the sewing and accompanying work; something that secures the edges of cloth or of a garment.
• noun In fencing, a method of securing the adversary's sword, consisting in crossing it with a pressure, accompanied with a spring of the wrist.
• noun plural In ship-building, the beams, transoms, knees, wales, keelson, and other chief timbers used for connecting and strengthening the various parts of a vessel. Also called binders.
• noun The condition assumed by adhesive soils in hot dry seasons; a similar condition in the soil of flowerpots in which plants have been kept too long or too dry; closeness, dryness, or hardness of texture.
• noun In machinery, the prevention of free motion in one part of a machine by the sagging or any deviation from a straight line of another portion.
• noun A projection of a part of a structure or machine by which parts intended to touch are prevented from coming into perfect contact.
• noun Nautical, a wrought-iron ring around a dead-eye.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective That binds; obligatory.
• adjective (Arch.) the main timber in double flooring.
• adjective (Arch.) the secondary timber in double-framed flooring.
• noun The act or process of one who, or that which, binds.
• noun Anything that binds; a bandage; the cover of a book, or the cover with the sewing, etc.; something that secures the edge of cloth from raveling.
• noun (Naut.) The transoms, knees, beams, keelson, and other chief timbers used for connecting and strengthening the parts of a vessel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Assigning something that one will be held to.
• noun An item (usually rope, tape, or string) used to hold two or more things together.
• noun The spine of a book where the pages are held together.
• noun sewing A finishing on a seam or hem of a garment
• noun programming The association of a named item with an element of a program.
• verb Present participle of bind.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective executed with proper legal authority
• noun the protective covering on the front, back, and spine of a book
• noun one of a pair of mechanical devices that are attached to a ski and that will grip a ski boot; the bindings should release in case of a fall
• noun strip sewn over or along an edge for reinforcement or decoration
• noun the capacity to attract and hold something
• noun the act of applying a bandage