bund

From German Bund (“alliance, league”). Doublet of Bund, bond, and band.

• IPA^(key): /bʊnd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊnd

bund (plural bunds)

1. A league or confederacy; especially the confederation of German states.
2. A group of foreign sympathizers of Nazi Germany, most notoriously before and during World War II.

From Hindustani بند / बंद (band), from Classical Persian بند (band).

• IPA^(key): /bʌnd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

bund (plural bunds)

1. A secondary enclosure, typically consisting of a wall or berm, which surrounds a tank or fluid-handling mechanism, intended to contain any spills or leaks.
   • 2025 July 31, “The Buncefield investigation - second progress report”, in Buncefield investigation‎^[1] (PDF), archived from the original on 14 April 2006, page 4:

     The most important of these [secondary containment] provisions are bunds, which are enclosures capable of holding liquids that may escape from the vessels and pipes within the bund wall.

2. (India) A perennial ("wet") or seasonal ("dry") pond constructed in a depression and in which fish are stored, typically for breeding.
4. An embankment.
   • 1875, John Thomson, The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China, and China, page 408:

     It is pleasant to see the Chinese domestics and their families; or native ladies dressed in silks, their glossy hair held in by a broad black velvet band with a spray of pearls in front, being propelled along the bund in their hand-carts; but they are not used among Europeans, excepting after dark.

   • 2021 November 17, Mark Rand, “Reconnecting rail freight to S&C quarries”, in RAIL, number 944, page 54:

     A massive opening in the bund (embankment), specifically there to screen the quarry from view, was needed, along with a Midland Railway-style bridge carrying a historic bridleway.

   • 2022 March 23, Philip Haigh, “Network News: Rogue earthwork triggered fatal washout at Carmont”, in RAIL, number 953, page 6:

     RAIB said it could not find evidence to explain who built the earth bank, known as a bund, or why it was built.

bund (third-person singular simple present bunds, present participle bunding, simple past and past participle bunded)

1. To provide berms or other secondary enclosures to guard against accidental fluid spills within.
   • 2020 December 1 (last accessed), “Plant Room Waterproofing & Tanking”, in RIW‎^[2]:

     Plant room floors are generally bunded and/or waterproofed to contain any leaks or spillages of liquids and fluids from faulty tanks, plant or pipe work.

Variant of bandh, from Hindi बंध (bandh); see that entry for more. Doublet of etymology 2 above.

• IPA^(key): /bʌnd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

bund (plural bunds)

1. (India) Alternative form of bandh.

• darwaza bund, durwaza bund

• “bund”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “bund”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “bund” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.
• “bund”, in Collins English Dictionary.

From Old Norse botn, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz.

• IPA^(key): [ˈb̥ɔnˀ]

bund c (singular definite bunden, plural indefinite bunde)

1. bottom (the lowest part)

bund

1. imperative of bunde

Borrowed from German Bund.

bund n (plural bunduri)

1. bund