bond

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

• noun Something, such as a fetter, cord, or band, that binds, ties, or fastens things together.
• noun Confinement in prison; captivity.
• noun A uniting force or tie; a link.
• noun A binding agreement; a covenant.
• noun A duty, promise, or other obligation by which one is bound.
• noun A substance or agent that causes two or more objects or parts to cohere.
• noun The union or cohesion brought about by such a substance or agent.
• noun A chemical bond.
• noun A systematically overlapping or alternating arrangement of bricks or stones in a wall, designed to increase strength and stability.
• noun A written obligation requiring the payment of a sum at a certain time.
• noun A debt security obligating a government or corporation to pay a specified amount on a future date, especially a marketable security that makes semiannual interest payments.
• noun A guarantee issued by a surety agency on behalf of a client, requiring the surety to pay a sum of money to a third party in the event the client fails to fulfill certain obligations; a surety bond.
• noun A sum pledged as a guarantee.
• noun A sum paid as a guarantee of a person's appearance at court for trial; bail.
• noun The condition of being held under the guarantee of a customs bond.
• noun An insurance contract that indemnifies an employer for loss resulting from a fraudulent or dishonest act by an employee; a fidelity bond.
• noun Bond paper.
• intransitive verb To join securely, as with glue or cement.
• intransitive verb To join (two or more individuals) in a relationship, as by shared belief or experience.
• intransitive verb To finance by issuing bonds.
• intransitive verb To raise by issuing bonds.
• intransitive verb To gain the release of (someone who has been arrested) by providing a bail bond.
• intransitive verb To issue a surety bond or a fidelity bond for.
• intransitive verb To lay (bricks or stones) in an overlapping or alternating pattern.
• intransitive verb To cohere with a bond.
• intransitive verb To form a close personal relationship.
• intransitive verb To secure release from prison by providing a bail bond.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To subject to bondage.
• To put in bond or into a bonded warehouse, as goods liable for customs or excise duties, the duties remaining unpaid till the goods are taken out, but bonds being given for their payment: as, to bond 1,000 pounds of tobacco.
• To grant a bond or bond and mortgage on: as, to bond property.
• To convert into bonds: as, to bond a debt.
• To place a bonded debt upon: as, to bond a railroad.
• In building, to bind or hold together (bricks or stones in a wall) by a proper disposition of headers and stretchers, or by cement, mortar, etc. See bond, n., 12.
• To hold together from being bonded, as bricks in a wall.
• To unite the ends of (two adjacent rails,) either by copper wires or cables, or by welding, in order to secure a low-resistance return-circuit for the electric current.
• noun Same as bond-timber.
• noun In electricity, the rod, heavy copper wire, or weld which is used to connect the abutting rails of a railway-track to form an electric circuit.
• noun In Scots law, the surrender of a fee to a superior.
• noun A peasant; a churl.
• noun A vassal; a serf; one held in bondage to a superior.
• Subject to the tenure called bondage.
• In a state of servitude or slavery; not free.
• Servile; slavish; pertaining to or befitting a slave: as, bond fear.
• noun Anything that binds, fastens, confines, or holds together, as a cord, chain, rope, band, or bandage; a ligament.
• noun Specifically
• noun plural Fetters; chains for restraint; hence, imprisonment; captivity.
• noun A binding or uniting power or influence; cause of union; link of connection; a uniting tie: as, the bonds of affection.