Fasten around the eye (4)
I believe the answer is:
lash
'fasten' is the definition.
(I know that bind is a is a kind of of lash)
'around the eye' is the wordplay.
'around' becomes 'las' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'eye' says to take the centre (eye can mean the centre of something).
The middle letter of 'the' is 'h'.
'las'+'h'='LASH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lash that I've seen before include "over the eye" , "Beat; fasten with cord" , "cat hair?" , "Strike with a whip" , "Sweep" .)