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Bend   /bɛnd/   Listen
noun
Bend  n.  
1.
A turn or deflection from a straight line or from the proper direction or normal position; a curve; a crook; as, a slight bend of the body; a bend in a road.
2.
Turn; purpose; inclination; ends. (Obs.) "Farewell, poor swain; thou art not for my bend."
3.
(Naut.) A knot by which one rope is fastened to another or to an anchor, spar, or post.
4.
(Leather Trade) The best quality of sole leather; a butt. See Butt.
5.
(Mining) Hard, indurated clay; bind.
6.
pl. (Med.) Same as caisson disease. Usually referred to as the bends.
Bends of a ship, the thickest and strongest planks in her sides, more generally called wales. They have the beams, knees, and foothooks bolted to them. Also, the frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the sides; as, the midship bend.


Bend  n.  
1.
A band. (Obs.)
2.
(Her.) One of the honorable ordinaries, containing a third or a fifth part of the field. It crosses the field diagonally from the dexter chief to the sinister base.
Bend sinister (Her.), an honorable ordinary drawn from the sinister chief to the dexter base.


verb
Bend  v. t.  (past & past part. bent; pres. part. bending)  
1.
To strain or move out of a straight line; to crook by straining; to make crooked; to curve; to make ready for use by drawing into a curve; as, to bend a bow; to bend the knee.
2.
To turn toward some certain point; to direct; to incline. "Bend thine ear to supplication." "Towards Coventry bend we our course." "Bending her eyes... upon her parent."
3.
To apply closely or with interest; to direct. "To bend his mind to any public business." "But when to mischief mortals bend their will."
4.
To cause to yield; to render submissive; to subdue. "Except she bend her humor."
5.
(Naut.) To fasten, as one rope to another, or as a sail to its yard or stay; or as a cable to the ring of an anchor.
To bend the brow, to knit the brow, as in deep thought or in anger; to scowl; to frown.
Synonyms: To lean; stoop; deflect; bow; yield.


Bend  v. i.  (past & past part. bent; pres. part. bending)  
1.
To be moved or strained out of a straight line; to crook or be curving; to bow. "The green earth's end Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend."
2.
To jut over; to overhang. "There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep."
3.
To be inclined; to be directed. "To whom our vows and wished bend."
4.
To bow in prayer, or in token of submission. "While each to his great Father bends."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Bend" Quotes from Famous Books



... "And the bend of the river glittering there! Here, a little more this way, and you will see it as I do. The moon is not at the full yet; the river will be like this for some ...
— Deerbrook • Harriet Martineau
... success. If such is any proof, I felt elated as well as satisfied when I came away. Aunt Janet's Second Sight on the subject was comforting, though grim, and in a measure disconcerting. When I was saying good-night she asked me to bend down my head. As I did so, she laid her hands on it and passed them all over it. I heard her ...
— The Lady of the Shroud • Bram Stoker
... refraction at that particular point, and leading us to think that the diameter is greater at that extremity. We may easily undeceive ourselves if we watch the movements of the vibrio, when we will readily recognize the bend, especially as it is brought into the vertical plane passing over the rest of the filament. In this way we will see the bright spot, THE ...
— The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various
... and that 'the said John [had] maryed Mary, daughter and heiress of Robert Arden, of Wilmcote, gent.' In consideration of these titles to honour, Garter declared that he assigned to Shakespeare this shield, viz.: 'Gold, on a bend sable, a spear of the first, and for his crest or cognizance a falcon, his wings displayed argent, standing on a wreath of his colours, supporting a spear gold steeled as aforesaid.' In the margin of this draft-grant ...
— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee
... of the Hamran Arabs in 1861 during my exploration of the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia; and upon the first occasion that I was introduced to an African male elephant, the animal was standing at the point of a long sandbank which had during high water formed the bed of the river, where a sudden bend had hollowed out the inner side of the curve and thrown up a vast mass of sand upon the opposite shore. This bank was a succession of terraces, each about 4 feet high, formed at intervals during the changes in the level of the retreating stream. ...
— Wild Beasts and their Ways • Sir Samuel W. Baker


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