# bend

Pronunciation: US say "BEND" /bɛnd/; UK

## Verb

1. To become curved; to take on a curved or arched shape.
   - Simple: To change shape and become curved instead of straight.
   - _Steel beams bend slightly under heavy loads._
   - _The shelf has bent under the weight of all those books._
2. To make something take on a curved shape, whether by physical force, chemical action, or some other means.
   - Simple: To make something curve instead of staying straight.
   - _Plumbers bend copper pipes to fit around tight corners._
   - _The intense heat bent the steel girders out of shape._
4. To change direction; to turn away from a straight course.
   - Simple: To turn and go in a different direction.
   - _Light rays bend as they pass from air into water._
   - _The highway bends sharply just before the tunnel._
5. To cause something to change its direction of movement or travel.
   - Simple: To make something turn and go in a different direction.
   - _Prisms bend white light into a band of separate colors._
   - _The magnet bent the electron beam toward the detector._
6. To stoop; to incline the body forward and downward.
   - Simple: To lean the top part of your body forward and down.
   - _Gardeners bend for hours while weeding the flower beds._
   - _He bent over the engine, searching for the loose wire._
7. To bow in prayer, or as a sign of submission or respect.
   - Simple: To lower your head or body to show respect or to pray.
   - _Worshippers bend in silent prayer at the start of the service._
   - _Every courtier bent as the emperor entered the hall._
8. To force a person or group to submit or give way.
   - Simple: To make a person or group give in and do what you want.
   - _Authoritarian leaders bend courts and newspapers to their will._
   - _The empire bent conquered peoples to its laws and language._
9. To submit; to yield to pressure or another's will.
   - Simple: To stop fighting against something and do what others want.
   - _Strong unions rarely bend during the first weeks of a strike._
   - _After months of protests, the government finally bent._
10. To apply oneself earnestly to a task or purpose.
   - Simple: To start working hard on a job and give it your full attention.
   - _Once the harvest begins, entire families bend to the work from dawn to dusk._
   - _Researchers across the world bent to the problem of the new disease._
11. To apply or direct one's mind, efforts, or resources to a task or purpose.
   - Simple: To put your mind or effort fully into a piece of work.
   - _Great athletes bend every habit of daily life to their training._
   - _The agency bent its entire budget to the relief effort._
12. To adapt or interpret something to suit a particular purpose or to favor someone.
   - Simple: To change facts or rules a little so they fit what you want.
   - _Lawyers sometimes bend a statute's wording to fit their client's case._
   - _Officials bent the zoning guidelines to accommodate the developer._
13. To be inclined in a particular direction; to direct itself toward something.
   - Simple: To lean or turn toward something, the way thoughts or feelings can.
   - _In winter, the conversations in the village bend toward the past._
   - _His steps bent toward the harbor, though he had no errand there._
14. To change the pitch of a note smoothly, sliding it up or down rather than jumping between fixed pitches.
   - Simple: To make a music note slide smoothly higher or lower in sound.
   - _Blues guitarists bend notes by pushing the string sideways across the fretboard._
   - _The harmonica player bent each note at the end of the phrase._
18. To tie or make fast, as in securing a line to a cleat or shackling a chain to an anchor.
   - Simple: To tie a rope or chain to something so it stays in place.
   - _Deckhands bend the mooring lines to the cleats before the storm arrives._
   - _She bent a spare halyard to the sail and hoisted it._
19. To swing the body forward and back with each stroke when rowing.
   - Simple: To swing your body forward and back while rowing a boat.
   - _Novice rowers often bend too early, before the blade enters the water._
   - _The whole eight bent in perfect unison down the final stretch._

## Noun

3. A curve or curved section, as in a road, river, or pipe.
   - Simple: A place where something long, like a road or pipe, curves.
   - _The truck slowed as it approached a sharp bend in the highway._
   - _The plumber installed a ninety-degree bend beneath the sink._
15. A glide between one pitch and another, especially one produced by pushing a guitar string sideways to raise its pitch.
   - Simple: A smooth slide in sound from one music note to another, often made by pushing a guitar string.
   - _The solo opens with a slow bend from the seventh fret._
   - _Her signature bends gave the melody a vocal, expressive quality._
16. A severe condition caused by an overly rapid drop in pressure, as when a diver surfaces too fast, causing nitrogen bubbles to form in the blood; decompression sickness.
   - Simple: A dangerous sickness divers get when they come up from deep water too fast.
   - _Divers make scheduled stops on the way up to avoid the bends._
   - _He spent six hours in a hyperbaric chamber after a mild case of the bends._
17. Any of various knots used to join the ends of two ropes or lines together.
   - Simple: A kind of knot used to tie the ends of two ropes together.
   - _The instructor showed us a bend that joins two ropes of unequal thickness._
   - _Sailors learn several bends so they can join lines quickly in rough weather._
20. In heraldry, a broad diagonal band on a shield running from the upper corner on the bearer's right to the lower corner on the left, one of the honorable ordinaries.
   - Simple: A wide stripe that crosses a shield from the upper left to the lower right.
   - _The family arms feature a silver bend on a blue field._
   - _Heralds describe bends as engrailed or wavy when their edges are patterned._
21. Hard, indurated clay of the kind encountered in mine workings; also called bind.
   - Simple: A very hard kind of clay that miners find while digging.
   - _The seam ran out where it met a band of bend._
   - _Progress slowed to a few feet a day once the workers cut into solid bend._
22. In the leather trade, sole leather of the best quality, cut from a butt; sometimes specifically half a butt cut lengthwise.
   - Simple: The best kind of thick leather, used for the bottoms of shoes.
   - _The cobbler cut new soles from a bend hanging at the back of the shop._
   - _Tanneries graded each bend before shipping it to the bootmakers._
23. The thickest and strongest planks in a wooden ship's sides, more commonly called wales, to which the beams, knees, and futtocks are bolted.
   - Simple: The thickest, strongest boards along the sides of a wooden ship.
   - _Shipwrights bolted the deck beams directly to the bends along each side._
   - _A cannonball lodged in the bend just above the waterline._
24. One of the frames or ribs that form a ship's body, rising from the keel to the top of the sides.
   - Simple: One of the curved ribs that give a ship's body its shape.
   - _The shipwright set up the midship bend first to govern the hull's shape._
   - _Once all the bends stood in place, planking could begin._

## Noun

25. A turn or inclination of the mind; a purpose, aim, or end one is set upon. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A person's aim or wish, or the way their mind leans.
   - _Nothing could move him from his bend once he had fixed upon the journey._
   - _The young scholar's bend lay wholly toward the study of the law._

## Origin

From Middle English benden, from Old English bendan ("to bind or bend a bow, to fetter, restrain"), going back through Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰendʰ- ("to bind, tie"). It is related to bind, band, and bond.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bend (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).