1A flat, thin strip or loop of material, used as a fastener, for reinforcement, or as decoration.

1. 1.1 A plain ring for the finger, especially a gold wedding ring.
   a narrow band of gold was her only jewellery

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A band of gold seals the wedding vows, and fifty years later the metal valorizes the most exalted anniversary of married bliss.
   • She wore no jewelry save the band of white gold on one of her fingers, a ring that once belonged to her mother.
   • After the vows are said, the Orthodox groom places a plain gold band on the ring finger of his bride's right hand.
   • He exhaled a sigh of contentment as he glanced at the gold band that encompassed the ring finger of his left hand.
   • He seemed strong, but before he could hide it, Aspen saw the gold band encircling his ring finger.
   • The other was small, dainty and was little more than a band of gold with a ruby set in the front of it.
   • She bought the gold and diamond band as an engagement ring for Hirsch, and planned to present it to him over a picnic lunch at the beach.
   • A fat, hot, salty tear rolled slowly down her pale, colour ridden cheek as she played with the plain gold band upon her finger.
   • Mr. Reubens twisted the simple band of gold once, twice, three times to the right upon his left fourth finger.
   • So I've got little white patches, a white stripe across my wrist where the bracelet goes, and a white band around my wedding finger.
   • What do we expect when we slip that band of gold on our finger?
   • He held up his left hand, which held a gold band on his left finger.
   • I know I am losing weight because my wedding ring and bands are very loose - so much so they are starting to bug me.
   • He hoped she saw the gold band on his left ring finger as he felt her gaze on him.
   • He twirled the gold band, Helen's wedding ring, around on the tip of his little finger, before sliding it down to the knuckle.
   • I caught a glimpse of an enormous diamond on a band of gold and my stomach dropped.
   • The one approaching her was about nineteen or twenty, and she also had a gold band on her ring finger.
   • Sure enough, there on her ring finger was a gold band with a modest diamond mounted in the center.
   • He slid the solid band of gold onto her finger, and then slipped her engagement ring back on her.
   • Angela looked over at Jacob and noticed the gold band on his finger.

   Synonyms

   circle, circlet, round, loop, hoop, circuit, halo, disc
2. 1.2North American Ornithology A ring of metal placed round a bird's leg to identify it.
   look for a leg band on the osprey

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Before eggs were laid, we trapped adults in their nest boxes and banded them with aluminum Canadian Wildlife Service bands and colored plastic leg bands.
   • All birds were banded with numbered aluminum leg bands and identified by sex and age (if possible).
   • They were given permanent metal colored bands on the last nest-visit when the A nestling was 32 days old.
   • To get an idea of what's going on in the bird world, it's not necessary to slap a band on every bird's leg, he said.
   • Upon capture, birds were fitted with individually colored plastic leg bands and immediately released at their point of capture.
   • All the birds in clinic have bands on their legs so when they are taken out of a flight room you can tell them apart.
   • Males also were banded with a unique combination of three colored plastic leg bands (total of four bands, two per leg).
   • All trapped birds were given a unique combination of colored plastic leg bands that identified the year, site, and individual bird.
   • The first record of a metal band being attached to a bird's leg was in 1595.
   • We marked all birds with uniquely colored leg bands to permit individual identification.
   • Nestlings were initially given only metal bands and were banded with color rings if they then remained in the study population.
   • Upon capture, each male received a unique set of two colored plastic bands to allow individual identification during dominance trials.
   • Adult birds were caught in mist nets and marked with a unique combination of three colored leg bands and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band.
   • Now, researchers are using stronger bands to track birds like these long-lived albatross.
   • We placed a metal band on one leg of each bird and a unique pair of colored bands on the other.
   • Without even looking at their leg bands, we can tell which birds belong to which family, simply by listening to their sounds.
   • Some plastic band loss occurred, and we treated birds with partial plastic bands as being of unknown identity when recaptured.
   • They were fitted with metal leg bands before release.
   • The numbers on the metal bands allowed us to identify individuals from distances up to 40 m.
   • Each was banded with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife aluminum band and three colored leg bands in unique combinations.
3. 1.3 A belt or strap transmitting motion between two wheels or pulleys.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • In the early years the wheels had iron bands, so it was a fairly jolty ride to school.
   • Spool the band around the axle, place the racer on the floor and get ready for a speedy trip when you release the rear wheels.
   • Start with a pulley or elastic resistance band set at shoulder height.
   • You can try to raise the cylinders higher in the cylinder-twinning bands, which will bring the valves higher up, making access easier.
   • Much admired for his skill at carpentry, Tade made horses and donkeys carts and put bands on the wheels of carts.
4. 1.4bands A collar with two hanging strips, worn by certain lawyers, clerics, and academics as part of their formal dress.
   I'm wearing clerical bands, which are a sign of my office

   Example sentencesExamples

   • As the Revolution developed, he became "a zealous Whig" who served in the Continental Congress, the only member who wore clerical bands in 1776.
   • There was a great accumulation of them near his clerical bands, on which the abundant folds of his red skin were resting.
   • The early colonists named it the “Parson bird,” in allusion to the peculiar tufts of white feathers that adorn its throat, and their fancied resemblance to the clerical bands.

2A stripe, line, or elongated area of a different colour, texture, or composition from its surroundings.

1. 2.1 A narrow stratum of rock or coal.
   the band of limestone continues north on the same contour

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Folding of a shear zone after its formation may explain systematic variations in the orientations of the main foliation, shear bands and mineral lineation.
   • There may also be one or two bands of ‘marker’, a mixture of substances of known molecular weight, to act as a guide to the apparent molecular weight of material in the other bands.
   • The crystallized barite at this location occurs in several closely spaced bands of calcite-cemented septarian concretions.
   • These secondary shear bands form only in strongly foliated rocks and deform fabrics developed earlier in the same deformation event.
   • Type I corresponds to the less deformed limestone, which contains cataclasite bands, veins and, at times, preserved sedimentary fabrics.
   • The deformation bands found in sandstone dykes and sills are true cataclastic deformation bands.
   • What you see are just the edges of dykes and sills - narrow bands of rock where the stuff has poured into cracks in the surrounding rock and solidified.
   • There are also thin bands of mylonitic augen gneiss.
   • In these conditions a progressive development of lattice preferred orientation from the low-strained limestone layers to the highly strained bands was observed.
   • The marble also contains thin bands and lenses of gneiss, often in boudinage structure.
   • The volcano-sedimentary sequence is characterized by lava flows alternating with grey shales and occasional red chert bands.
   • These dates are only applicable to stage boundaries and no dates are available for marine bands and coals used to correlate sections at sub-stage level.
   • A sandstone dyke-sill complex was intruded into a sequence of black mudstones and decimetre-thick bands of limestone.
   • It occurs as nodules and thin bands and sometimes replaces organic material in marine fossils.
   • A few of these develop up to centimetre-wide cataclastic bands and show a systematic right-lateral sense of shear.
   • Abundant kink bands deforming foliation and stretching lineation occur in swarms.
   • It typically shows graded bedding and cross laminae, and contains occasional pelite and psammite bands.
   • The rock also comprises feldspar-rich bands aligned parallel to the main fabric.
   • Many of the gneisses in such areas were largely of mixed aspect, with bands of metamorphic rock interleaved with others of more granitic nature.
   • They have been referred to as microfaults, cataclastic slip bands, braided shear fractures, granulation seams or band faults.

3A range of values or a specified category within a series (used especially in financial contexts)

1. 3.1 A range of frequencies or wavelengths in a spectrum.
   channels in the UHF band

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The portrait of a galaxy could thus include information about its appearance in these other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
   • An image is decomposed into a collection of sub-sampled spatial frequency bands, known as subbands.
   • Short and long refer to the short and long wavelength bands, respectively.
   • Possible applications may range from spectroscopy to wavelength generation in bands not easily accessible at present.
   • Crowded spectrum bands are the biggest problem.
   • Commercial adoption is expected to accelerate after this summer, when new standards will be introduced to regulate radio frequency bands.
   • Still, to be truly useful, devices should operate at telecom wavelengths or across broader spectral bands.
   • Numerous manufacturers offer products that meet these requirements in one or more frequency bands.
   • UV-B is the band of lowest wavelength and highest energy that penetrates the ozone layer of the stratosphere.
   • The software subsequently generates RMS wavefront data for these frequency bands.
   • Multiple images of a single field-of-view are captured in more than three wavelength bands in this range.
   • Quantum dots can be designed to fluoresce in a wide range of wavelength bands.
   • Today's multiband antennas are physically too large to carry if they have to support a very wide range of frequency bands.
   • Many applications need fast readout, high-precision synchronization, and high sensitivity in defined spectral bands.
   • The new images show Titan's atmosphere and surface at various near-infrared spectral bands.
   • In the visible, three spectral bands corresponding to blood absorption can be indicated.
   • The input light comprises a plurality of wavelength bands or optical channels of light, each of which are centered at a respective channel wavelength.
   • The spectrum of B. maxima, with its pronounced 470 nm band, resembled the excitation spectra for the emission bands from PS II.
   • All the sub-streams are transmitted in the same frequency band, so spectrum is used very efficiently.
   • The wireless technology can transmit digital data over a wide spectrum of frequency bands with very low power.
2. 3.2 Any of several groups into which school pupils of the same age are divided on the basis of broadly similar ability.
   the top band of pupils

   Example sentencesExamples

   • This can happen even where the academy supposedly has a fair admissions system of taking children from different bands (ranges of academic achievement).
   • All applicants to the school will take a test, with the children then divided into nine ability bands.
   • The top band is much closer to average earnings than it used to be.
   • The results of this assessment divide pupils into five bands.
   • That's one top prize for each of the three age bands in both categories.

4archaic A thing that restrains, binds, or unites.

1Provide or fit (an object) with something in the form of a strip or ring, for reinforcement or decoration.

1. 1.1North American Ornithology Put a band on (a bird) for identification.
   the map shows where starlings banded in Holland were later recovered

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Nestlings were initially given only metal bands and were banded with color rings if they then remained in the study population.
   • UK ornithologists are able to keep track of these aged avians because the birds are banded, or in British vernacular, ringed.
   • Most birds are color banded for individual identification, and blood samples have been collected for all banded birds since 1990.
   • Another possibility is that the bird had a genetic problem with its heart and it had heart failure from the stress of being banded.
   • Breeding Black Brant have been banded at that site since 1986, providing a large sample of identifiable females on which to measure repeatability.
   • If a bird was banded as a nestling, its age was known.
   • Sex of hatching-year birds and age of adults could not be determined, except when birds that had been banded as nestlings or juveniles later returned to the study area as adults.
   • Birds were banded with U. S. Fish and Wildlife bands and a unique combination of color bands, which allowed me to identify individuals at a distance.
   • Nearly all of these birds were banded as chicks or juveniles at or near breeding colonies.
   • However, after previously unbanded birds were banded during nesting, the understanding of territory boundaries and number of territories never changed.
   • We also present data from several 1-year-old birds banded as nestlings and recaptured the following breeding season.
   • Birds did not switch far from their original territory, and most territorial birds were banded in the vicinity of the removal experiments.
   • All birds were banded with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aluminum band, and all adults were marked with unique combinations of colored leg bands for individual identification.
   • Only after the ornithologists began banding birds on a large scale did their migration patterns begin to come into focus.
   • Each bird was uniquely banded with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service numbered band and three anodized aluminum color bands.
   • In 16 adjacent territories, where nearly all birds were banded, 34 birds disappeared during 8 years.
   • For birds that were banded after arrival, we assumed that they had arrived and begun fasting on Oct 20 for males and Oct 25 for females.
   • When 14 days old, nestlings were banded and weighed to the nearest 0.05 g.
   • All nestlings were banded, which enabled a study of recruitment to the breeding population.
   • The first bird that I saw banded was a calliope hummingbird.

2Mark (something) with a stripe or stripes of a different colour.

3British Allocate to a range or category (used especially in financial contexts)

1. 3.1 Group (school pupils) into classes or sets for teaching purposes.
   the infants are banded in terms of their ability

1A group of people who have a common interest or purpose or who share a common feature.

1. 1.1Anthropology A subgroup of a tribe.
   Philip was born a Shushwap Indian, part of the Little Shushwap band

   Example sentencesExamples

   • All Inuit bands speak very closely related dialects of this language family.
   • Social mechanisms like marriage and exogamy ensured that individual bands, tribes, or clans operated within systems that extended over vast distances.
   • Some live in thriving communities, while others are just small tribes or bands.
   • Tribes are larger than bands, numbering up to a few thousand people, and they tend to be settled farmers, though some are pastoralists with a mobile economy.
2. 1.2 (in Canada) a First Nations community that is officially recognized by the federal government, having an elected government with authority over internal affairs and acknowledged rights to a tract of land.
   the legislation requires aboriginal communities to post their band's financial statements online

   as modifier band members have an aboriginal right to fish in the river

2A small group of musicians and vocalists who play pop, jazz, or rock music.

1. 2.1 A group of musicians who play brass, wind, or percussion instruments.
   a military band

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The Catholic Boys Brigade in Newry was over 1,000 strong, and they had three bands, - brass, flute and bugle.
   • In New Orleans and across the country brass marching bands became very popular in the Napoleonic period.
   • Now Wanderers are going a step further with their own Reebok Rhythm sound, based on a percussion band from Ghana.
   • Appropriately, the band features a fabulous fat tuba player spitting out bass notes.
   • Were any particular bands or musicians discussed?
   • In the same year, he went from being a rehearsal keyboard player to a studio musician with the band.
   • Before that, he was a musician touring with various bands.
   • The band collaborates with new musicians every time it performs.
   • As this is going on, the angry men are desperately trying to play a full set of marching band wind instruments.
   • Four members of the present band also play with the Graig Brass Band, a band with a long history stretching back to the 1760s.
   • Craig's dad, Ian, is a trombonist, while his brother, Andrew, is in the band's percussion session.
   • Then with the early light came ‘the clash of brass’ as the band of the Royal Marines marched by.
   • Even from the opening moments, as the band tunes up its instruments, we know this movie is going to be about the music.
   • Sibelius Instruments is a unique, interactive encyclopedia of instruments, bands, orchestras and ensembles.
   • Steel drum music originated when members of traditional African percussion bands began using discarded oil drums.
   • Whether they are Pipes & Drums or Brass & Reed bands, the musicians are there to support this grand event.
   • Throughout the morning, youngsters from the various bands, including brass and wind, practised in front of the many visitors.
   • Sceptical as I was at the start, playing in a percussion band was also good fun.
   • They have already lost the two leading musical instruments in the band.

   Synonyms

   group, musical group, pop group, ensemble, orchestra

3North American A herd or flock.

(of people or organizations) form a group to achieve a mutual objective.