What does bounds mean in Romeo and Juliet?

Answer 1

The word occurs eight times in the play. Most of the time it is the past tense of "bind", meaning to tie up or tie together. In Act 1 it is also used in the sense of "to leap" Thus when Romeo says to Benvolio:

I am too sore enpierced with his shaft

To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,

I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:

Under love's heavy burden do I sink.

he is using it in both meanings, making a pun. He feels he is tied up with love he cannot leap above his melancholy feeling.

The senses of "tied" for which "bound" is used are varied. Capulet uses it to talk about how he and Montague are restricted by the law against public brawling. Juliet uses it in the sense of a binding of a book "Was ever book containing such vile matter so fairly bound?" Later in the same scene she uses the word to mean "boundary". Finally Capulet uses it in the sense of a moral obligation "This reverend holy friar; our whole city is much bound to him."

Answer 2

in debt A+