bend

Etymology

From Middle English benden, from Old English bendan (“to bind or bend (a bow), fetter, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *bandijaną (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind, tie”). Cognate with Middle High German benden (“to fetter”), Danish bænde (“to bend”), Norwegian bende (“to bend”), Faroese benda (“to bend, inflect”), Icelandic benda (“to bend”). More at band.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĕnd, IPA^(key): /bɛnd/
• (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /bɪnd/
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Verb

bend (third-person singular simple present bends, present participle bending, simple past and past participle bent or (archaic) bended)

1. (transitive) To cause (something) to change its shape into a curve, by physical force, chemical action, or any other means.

   If you bend the pipe too far, it will break.

   Don’t bend your knees.

2. (intransitive) To become curved.

   Look at the trees bending in the wind.

3. (transitive) To cause to change direction.
   • Milton

     Bend thine ear to supplication.

   • Shakespeare

     Towards Coventry bend we our course.

   • Sir Walter Scott

     bending her eyes […] upon her parent

4. (intransitive) To change direction.

   The road bends to the right

5. (intransitive) To be inclined; to direct itself.
   • Milton

     to whom our vows and wishes bend

6. (intransitive, usually with "down") To stoop.

   He bent down to pick up the pieces.

7. (intransitive) To bow in prayer, or in token of submission.
   • Coleridge

     Each to his great Father bends.

8. (transitive) To force to submit.

   They bent me to their will.

   • Shakespeare

     except she bend her humour

9. (intransitive) To submit.

   I am bending to my desire to eat junk food.

10. (transitive) To apply to a task or purpose.

    He bent the company's resources to gaining market share.

    • Temple

      to bend his mind to any public business

    • Alexander Pope

      when to mischief mortals bend their will

11. (intransitive) To apply oneself to a task or purpose.

    He bent to the goal of gaining market share.

12. (transitive) To adapt or interpret to for a purpose or beneficiary.
13. (transitive, nautical) To tie, as in securing a line to a cleat; to shackle a chain to an anchor; make fast.

    Bend the sail to the yard.

14. (transitive, music) To smoothly change the pitch of a note.

    You should bend the G slightly sharp in the next measure.

15. (intransitive, nautical) To swing the body when rowing.

Noun

bend (plural bends)

Azure a bend or, the arms of Scrope

1. A curve.
   • 1968, Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues

     I hear the train a comin'/It's rolling round the bend

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

   There's a sharp bend in the road ahead.

2. Any of the various knots which join the ends of two lines.
   • 2012, Percy W. Blandford, Practical Knots and Ropework, page 67:

     A simpler version of the common bend with its ends in the same direction is used to join binder twine in a hay baling machine.

3. (in the plural, medicine, diving, with the) A severe condition caused by excessively quick decompression, causing bubbles of nitrogen to form in the blood; decompression sickness.

   A diver who stays deep for too long must ascend very slowly in order to prevent the bends.

4. (heraldry) One of the honourable ordinaries formed by two diagonal lines drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base; it generally occupies a fifth part of the shield if uncharged, but if charged one third.
   • 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, pages 63-64:

     Perhaps the most celebrated coat of arms is that of Scrope, which is Azure a bend Or. This is the coat over which, from 1385 to 1390, Sir Robert le Grosvenor and Sir Richard le Scrope invoked the High Court of Chivalry to decide which of them had the right to bear these arms. Chaucer gave evidence before the court. In the end the arms were awarded to Scrope, and Grosvenor was ordered to difference with a bordure Argent. This he disdained to do, and being highly dissatisfied with the verdict he appealed to Richard II who altered the decision of the court by refusing to allow the bend to Grosvenor at all! Grosvenor then adopted a garb, or sheaf of corn.

5. (obsolete) Turn; purpose; inclination; ends.
   • Fletcher

     Farewell, poor swain; thou art not for my bend.

6. In the leather trade, the best quality of sole leather; a butt.
7. (mining) Hard, indurated clay; bind.
8. (nautical, in the plural) The thickest and strongest planks in a ship's sides, more generally called wales, which have the beams, knees, and futtocks bolted to them.
9. (nautical, in the plural) The frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the sides.

   the midship bends

10. (music) A glissando, or glide between one pitch and another.

Related terms

• bent

References

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at

Anagrams

• D. Neb.

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *band (“drop”). Compare Phrygian βεδυ (“water”), Sanskrit बिन्दु (bindú, “drop”), Middle Irish banna, baina (“drop”) and possibly Latin Fōns Bandusiae.

Noun

bend m

1. a pond, water reservoir
2. idle or provocative words
3. servant, henchman

Noun

bend

1. slave

Etymology

Borrowed from English bend.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbẽd͡ʒ/

Noun

bend m (plural bends)

1. (music, electric guitar) bend (change in pitch produced by bending a string)

Etymology

From English band.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bênd/

Noun

bȅnd m (Cyrillic spelling бе̏нд)

1. (music) band (group of musicians)