ligature

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of tying or binding.
2. n. A cord, wire, or bandage used for tying or binding.
3. n. A thread, wire, or cord used in surgery to close vessels or tie off ducts.
4. n. Something that unites; a bond.
5. n. A character, letter, or type, such as æ, combining two or more letters.
6. n. Music A group of notes intended to be played or sung as one phrase.
7. n. Music A curved line indicating such a phrase; a slur.
8. n. Music A passage of notes sung by repeating the same syllable.
9. n. Music A metal band that attaches the reed to the mouthpiece of the clarinet and related instruments.
10. v. To ligate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Anything that serves for tying, binding, or uniting, as a cord or bandage; hence, any binding, restraining, or uniting agency or principle.
2. n. Specifically In surgery: A cord for tying a blood-vessel, particularly an artery, to prevent hemorrhage.
3. n. A cord or wire to remove tumors, etc., by strangulation.
4. n. The act of binding; ligation.
5. n. The state of being bound or consolidated.
6. n. Impotence supposed to be induced by magic.
7. n. In music: In medieval musical notation, one of various compound note-forms designed to indicate groups of two or more tones which were to be sung to a single syllable—that is, similar to a group of slurred notes in the modern notation. Ligatures are often difficult to decipher, on account of the doubtfulness not only of the pitch of the tones intended, but of their relative duration.
8. n. In modern musical notation, a tie or band; hence, a group of notes slurred together, intended to be sung at a single breath or to be played as a continuous phrase.
9. n. In contrapuntal music, a syncopation.
10. n. In printing and writing, a type or character consisting of or representing two or more letters or characters united. In type-founding the ligatures fl, fl, ff, ffi, ffl are made on account of the kern or overhanging top of the letter f. Six others were formerly made with the similarly shaped long s, now disused—fb, fh, fi, fk, fl, and ft; and there was also a ligatured ct (εt). A still larger number of ligatures were used in old fonts of Greek type, all of which are now generally discarded. In medieval cursive or minuscule manuscripts, especially of Greek, ligatures are very numerous, and in the earlier printed editions about fifty such characters are of frequent occurrence. Some of the Greek ligatures and of the elements composing them seem to have originated in tachygraphic or shorthand characters. See tachygraphy.
11. To compress or tie by means of a ligature, in any sense; ligate.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The act of tying or binding something.
2. n. countable A cord or similar thing used to tie something; especially the thread used in surgery to close a vessel or duct.
3. n. countable, typography A character that visually combines multiple letters, such as æ, œ, ß or ij; also logotype. Sometimes called a typographic ligature.
4. n. countable, music A group of notes played as a phrase, or the curved line that indicates such a phrase.
5. n. countable A piece used to hold a reed to the mouthpiece on woodwind instruments.
6. v. surgery To ligate; to tie.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of binding.
2. n. Anything that binds; a band or bandage.
3. n. A thread or string for tying the blood vessels, particularly the arteries, to prevent hemorrhage.
4. n. A thread or wire used to remove tumors, etc.
5. n. The state of being bound or stiffened; stiffness.
6. n. obsolete Impotence caused by magic or charms.
7. n. (Mus.) A curve or line connecting notes; a slur.
8. n. (Print.) A double character, or a type consisting of two or more letters or characters united, as æ, fi, ffl.
9. v. (Surg.) To ligate; to tie.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the act of tying or binding things together
2. n. something used to tie or bind
3. n. thread used by surgeons to bind a vessel (as to constrict the flow of blood)
4. n. character consisting of two or more letters combined into one
5. n. a metal band used to attach a reed to the mouthpiece of a clarinet or saxophone
6. n. (music) a group of notes connected by a slur