hidebound

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Bound with the hide of an animal.

   Open the box in which his large hidebound book is kept. The faint smell of manure, over 150 years old, still rises from thick yellowing pages, and you begin to live his life.

2. 2
   adj

   Having the skin adhering so closely to the ribs and back as not to be easily loosened or raised; emaciated.

   Some of the horses were looking hidebound, and I promised the sergeant that I'd buy a couple of hundredweight of linseed for them when I went on leave. Linseed was a cosy idea; it reminded me of peacetime conditions.

3. 3
   adj

   Niggardly; penurious; stingy.

   1644-1646, Francis Quarles, Boanerges and Barnabas hath my purse been hidebound to my hungry brother?

From hide (“animal skin”, noun) + bound (“tied”, adjective).

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