BOUND UP

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bound up mean? 

• BOUND UP (adjective)
  The adjective BOUND UP has 2 senses:

1. closely or inseparably connected or associated with

2. deeply devoted to

  Familiarity information: BOUND UP used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOUND UP (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Closely or inseparably connected or associated with

Context example:

his career is bound up with the fortunes of the enterprise

Similar:

related; related to (being connected either logically or causally or by shared characteristics)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deeply devoted to

Synonyms:

bound up; wrapped up

Context example:

is wrapped up in his family

Similar:

committed (bound or obligated, as under a pledge to a particular cause, action, or attitude)

 Context examples 

It must have been latent savagery stirring in me, for the old words, so bound up with the roots of the race, to grip me and thrill me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Why don't you try to get work on a newspaper, if you are so bound up in your writing?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It took around 50 hours to extract 96 percent of the oxygen bound up in the regolith sample, but 75 percent of the oxygen lifted in the first 15 hours.

(Scientists Find Way to Extract Oxygen from Moon Dirt, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

By-and-by he bound up my wound, and sent me downstairs to get a glass of wine for myself.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But I was restrained, when I thought of the heroic and suffering Elizabeth, whom I tenderly loved, and whose existence was bound up in mine.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The team thinks most of Ceres' ancient ocean is now frozen and bound up in the crust, remaining in the form of ice, clathrate hydrates and salts.

(Dawn Finds Possible Ancient Ocean Remnants at Ceres, NASA)

Their eyes burned in their heads; their feet grew speedier and lighter; their whole soul was bound up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance and pleasure, that lay waiting there for each of them.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Then the wind came and blew away his hat; and off it flew a great way, over the hills and far away, so that he had to run after it; and when he came back she had bound up her hair again, and all was safe.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

In the fall of the year, when the first snows were falling and mush-ice was running in the river, Beauty Smith took passage for himself and White Fang on a steamboat bound up the Yukon to Dawson.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A universal favorite, thanks to money, manners, much talent, and the kindest heart that ever got its owner into scrapes by trying to get other people out of them, he stood in great danger of being spoiled, and probably would have been, like many another promising boy, if he had not possessed a talisman against evil in the memory of the kind old man who was bound up in his success, the motherly friend who watched over him as if he were her son, and last, but not least by any means, the knowledge that four innocent girls loved, admired, and believed in him with all their hearts.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)