compound: Meaning and Definition of

com•pound

1. composed of two or more parts, elements, or ingredients: Soap is a compound substance.
2. having or involving two or more actions or functions: The mouth is a compound organ.
3. of or pertaining to a compound sentence or compound-complex sentence.
4. (of a word)
1. consisting of two or more parts that are also bases, as housetop, many-sided, playact, or upon.
2. consisting of any two or more parts that have identifiable meaning, as a base and a noninflectional affix (return, follower), a base and a combining form (biochemistry), two combining forms (ethnography), or a combining form and a noninflectional affix (aviary, dentoid).
5. (of a verb tense) consisting of an auxiliary verb and a main verb, as are swimming, have spoken, or will write (opposed to simple).
6. composed of several similar parts that combine to form a whole: a compound fruit.
7. composed of a number of distinct individuals that are connected to form a united whole or colony, as coral.
8. of or pertaining to compound time.
9. noting an engine or turbine expanding the same steam or the like in two successive chambers to do work at two ranges of pressure.

1. something formed by compounding or combining parts, elements, etc.
2. a pure substance composed of two or more elements whose composition is constant.
3. a compound word, esp. one composed of two or more words that are otherwise unaltered, as moonflower or rainstorm.

1. to put together into a whole; combine: to compound drugs to form a new medicine.
2. to make or form by combining parts, elements, etc.; construct: to compound a new plan from parts of several former plans.
3. to make up or constitute: all the organs and members that compound a human body.
4. to settle or adjust by agreement, esp. for a reduced amount, as a debt.
5. to agree, for a consideration, not to prosecute or punish a wrongdoer for: to compound a crime or felony.
6. to pay (interest) on the accrued interest as well as the principal: My bank compounds interest quarterly.
7. to increase or add to: The misery of his loneliness was now compounded by his poverty.
8. to connect a portion of the field turns of (a direct-current dynamo) in series with the armature circuit.

1. to make a bargain; come to terms; compromise.
2. to settle a debt, claim, etc., by compromise.
3. to form a compound.

com•pound

1. (in the Far East) an enclosure containing residences, business offices, or other establishments of Europeans.
2. (in Africa) a similar enclosure for native laborers.
3. any enclosure, esp. for prisoners of war.
4. any separate cluster of homes, often owned by members of the same family.