bend

From Middle English benden, from Old English bendan (“to bind or bend (a bow), fetter, restrain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bandijan, 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”). Related to band, bond.

• enPR: ĕnd, IPA^(key): /bɛnd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

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

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.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Bend thine ear to supplication.

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii]:

     Towards Coventry bend we our course.

   • 1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     bending her eyes on the floor

4. (intransitive) To change direction.

   The road bends to the right.

5. (intransitive) To be inclined; to direct itself.
   • 1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:

     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.
   • 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:

     Each to his great Father bends.

8. (transitive) To force to submit.

   They bent me to their will.

   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     Of liegers for her sweet, and which she after
     Except she bend her humour, shall be assured
     To taste of too.

   • 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3: Leviathan, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: 2181 Despoina:

     Leviathan: You cannot conceive of a galaxy that bends to your will.
     Leviathan: Every creature, every nation, every planet we discovered became our tools. We were above the concerns of lesser species.

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.

    • 1677 June 28, William Temple, “An Essay upon the Cure of Gout by Moxa. […]”, in Miscellanea. The First Part. [...], 3rd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], and Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1691, →OCLC, page 192:

      And I remember one great Miniſter that confeſt to me, when he fell into one of his uſual Fits of the Gout, He was no longer able to bend his mind or thoughts to any Publick Buſineſs, [...]

    • 1714, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, canto III:

      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.
    • 2011, Demetrios S. Katos, Palladius of Helenopolis: The Origenist Advocate, page 60:

      Palladius did not lie, although he might have bent the facts a bit and even passed over in silence whatever might not have benefited his client's cause.

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.

bend (plural bends)

Azure a bend or, the arms of Scrope

1. A curve.

   There's a sharp bend in the road ahead.

   • 1968, Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues:

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

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     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.

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, underwater 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.

   Coordinate terms: bendlet, cost, garter, riband, baton, scrape

   • 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.
   • 1608, John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, act 1, scene 3:

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

6. In the leather trade, the best quality of sole leather; a butt; sometimes, half a butt cut lengthwise.
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.

• bent

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

• D. Neb.

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

bend m

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

• përbindësh

bend ?

1. slave

From benda, bende (“to bend”).

bend n (definite singular bendet, indefinite plural bend, definite plural benda)

1. a bend
2. a bent position
3. a butt on a thick rope

bend (neuter bendt, definite singular and plural bende)

1. past participle of benda

bend

1. imperative of benda

• “bend” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

bend

1. inflection of bendr:
   1. strong feminine nominative singular
   2. strong neuter nominative/accusative plural

bend

1. second-person singular active imperative of benda

Unadapted borrowing from English bend.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbẽd͡ʒi/

bend m (plural bends)

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

From English band.

• IPA^(key): /bênd/

bȅnd m (Cyrillic spelling бе̏нд)

1. (music) band (group of musicians)