iron-bound, a.
Also 4–6 -bounden.
[f. iron n.1 + bound, pa. pple. of bind v. (With shifting stress.)]
1. Bound with iron; confined with bands of iron; in quot. 1802, Confined with irons, fettered.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 246 Þere auarice hath almaries and yren-bounde coffres. 1497 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 94, iiij wheles iren bounden. Ibid. 99 Iren bounden. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §5 If they be yren bounden, they are moche the better..for a payre of wheles yren bounde, wyl weare .vii. or .viii. payre of other wheles. 1561 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 285 No bruer..shall carry any bere..w{supt} iernebond carts w{supt}in the Citie. 1641 Hinde J. Bruen xlvi. 147 The wheele went over his legge, being iron bound. 1705 Lond. Gaz. No. 4163/3 A large Iron-bound Box. 1802 Campbell Lochiel's Warning 65 But where is the iron-bound prisoner? Where? 1884 J. Parker Apost. Life III. 258 A gate iron-bound and iron-riveted. |
2. transf. Of a coast: Faced or enclosed with hard rocks; rock-bound. In quot. 1887, Hardened by frost, frost-bound.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Terres hautes..a bold, or iron-bound coast. 1852 Earp Gold Col. Australia 30 Mr. Bass..and Lieutenant..Flinders started with him on a survey of the iron-bound coast of Australia, in a boat only eight feet long! 1867 J. Macgregor Voy. Alone (1868) 73 This part of the coast..besides being iron-bound has no port that is easy to enter. 1887 J. Ball Nat. in S. Amer. 267 The muddy streets were iron-bound with frost. |
3. fig. Rigidly confined or restricted; hard, unimpressionable; rigorous, hard and fast.
| 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 235 My ironbound physiognomy [would]..be as notorious as that of Noah Webster. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Napoleon Wks. (Bohn) I. 374 The old iron-bound, feudal France was changed into a young Ohio or New York. a 1898 J. Caird Fundam. Ideas Chr. II. xiv. 145 If there be in the divine nature an iron-bound impassibility. |