unbound
Americanverb
adjective
-
not bound, as a book.
-
free; not attached, as by a chemical bond.
unbound electrons.
verb
adjective
-
(of a book) not bound within a cover
-
not restrained or tied down by bonds
-
(of a morpheme) able to form a word by itself; free
Etymology
Origin of unbound
before 900; (adj.) Middle English unbounde, unbunden, Old English unbunden; see un- 1, bound 1
Explanation
Things that are free, rather than attached or restrained, are unbound. You prefer your to wear your hair in a tight ponytail to keep it off your face, while your best friend likes her hair unbound. If you untie your pet goats so they can roam free, they'll be unbound. It's even more common to use this adjective figuratively, to mean "free" or "unconstrained," like little kids who are unbound from conventional ideas of politeness, or students in the summer, unbound from school, who are free to sleep late.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Instead, three other hotels will get the spotlight: the Martinez, part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection of luxury properties; the Airelles Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez; and the Lutetia, a Mandarin Oriental property in Paris.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
He also returned to the director's chair in 1990 with the film Frankenstein Unbound.
From BBC • May 12, 2024
He regularly co-hosts the Bloomberg Technology Summit, and is the author of several books on big tech companies, including “Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire.”
From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2024
In 2019, John Mitchinson, the co-founder of publishing platform Unbound Publishing, came across a copy of the story and its solution at a literary museum in the U.K.
From Scientific American • Apr. 21, 2023
Unbound, it hung past the small of the back.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
