Jam

BIND

["Think of what happens when a contract is made legally enforceable or when pages are held together in a book."]

"Jam" here isn’t about fruit spread—it’s a play on the word’s other meaning, like a traffic jam or something stuck. The answer "BIND" fits because to "jam" can also mean to block or trap, which is what binding does. Think of a door jamming shut or a machine getting jammed, both cases where things are tightly bound.