Stormbound

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Trapped in one location by severe weather, unable to travel or leave until the storm passes
2. Confined somewhere by a violent storm that blocks roads, ports, or passage out
3. Held fast in a place because bad weather makes it impossible to set out or return

Etymology: "Stormbound" is a plain compound: "storm" joined to "-bound," the suffix that means confined, held, or prevented by the thing named. A ship that cannot leave harbour because of a gale is storm-bound, and so is a traveller stuck on a mountain pass after snowfall. The sense is one of restraint: the storm is the force doing the holding. The "-bound" element has a longer history than the word it forms. It comes from the Middle English "bounde," the past participle of "bind," which in turn descends from Old English and reaches back to a shared Germanic root. That same ending appears in older compounds such as "housebound" and "snowbound," which follow the identical pattern of a noun plus "-bound" to describe being held in place.

Synonyms: windbound, weatherbound, storm-bound