bind over

1. 1.

   order a defendant to be placed in custody pending the outcome of a proceedings against him or her

   “The defendant was bound over for trial”

   Broaderconfine

   law

Questions about bind over

What does bind over mean?

bind over means "order a defendant to be placed in custody pending the outcome of a proceedings against him or her".

Is bind over a common word?

bind over is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.