[Purposes] This paper aims to reveal the morphology of adsorbed bound water and its changing law in high liquid limit soils under loads. [Methods] The initial adsorbed bound water content of soil samples was regulated by NaCl solution at different concentrations and quantitatively determined by thermogravimetric analysis. On this basis, the consolidation test under static loads and the permanent deformation test under dynamic loads were carried out to analyze the influence of the change in adsorbed bound water content on the deformation characteristics of the samples. [Findings] With the increase in NaCl solution concentration, the adsorbed bound water content of the soil samples decreases, but the strong bound water content basically remains unchanged. Under static and dynamic loads, the plastic deformation of the soil samples increases with the decrease in adsorbed bound water content. Under the same load conditions, dynamic loads result in greater plastic deformation compared with static loads. This is due to the fact that static loads mainly compress the pore space and discharge the free water, but they do not affect the adsorbed bound water, while dynamic loads can make the adsorbed bound water converted into free water and discharged, thus aggravating the plastic deformation. [Conclusions] This study reveals the influence mechanism of adsorbed bound water on the deformation characteristics of high liquid limit soils and provides a scientific basis and technical reference for the deformation control of high liquid limit soils.