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Glite Dictionary
underbound

underbound

9.3
Has less material or strength than usual so books fall apart
  • adjective
  • Specialized
translation icon : mal encuadernado
  • The book was underbound, causing its pages to fall out after only a few readings.

Examples

  • I noticed the underbound manuscript had several loose sheets when I opened it.

  • Due to cost-cutting measures, many of the reports were printed on underbound paper.

  • The analytical units used in the census, however, both overbound and underbound areas with urban densities.

    Academic text (2001)

Antonyms

to overbound
8.4

To limit something more than needed so it has less freedom

How Durable

reinforced
1 3.7
bound
6 4.2
underbound
  • Specialized
9.3
unbound
1 6.4

Surface Forms

underbound positive

Morphology

underbound = bound (transparent) = under + bound

Productive English prefix 'under-' meaning 'insufficiently' combines with 'bound' to give the literal sense 'insufficiently bound'.

Etymology

The word underbound comes from under- meaning 'not enough' or 'below' and bound meaning 'to tie' or 'fasten'. So an underbound book is one that was tied too weakly and has too little binding, which is why it can fall apart.