bent

Pluralbents

1. 1
   adjective

   Folded, dented, or pushed out of a normally straight shape.

   The fender was badly bent after the parking-lot collision.

   A bent antenna left the radio crackling with static.

   Similarcrooked

   Oppositestraight

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bend.

   The storm bent the young trees nearly to the ground.

   Over the years, the old shelf had bent under the weight of the books.

   Note

   One form does double duty: the simple past (the storm bent the trees) and the past participle (the shelf had bent). It goes back to the Middle English preterite stem bente and the participles bent and ybent of benden, so bend plus a -t ending. Because bend works with and without an object, the participle pairs with have for the change (it has bent) and with be for the result (it was bent).

3. 3
   adjectivewith on

   Firmly determined or insistent on doing something; set on a particular course.

   Like an arrow already loosed toward its target.

   The protesters were bent on being heard before the vote.

   Once she was bent on a plan, nothing could talk her out of it.

   Similarintent, set

   Note

   The construction carries the meaning here: bent on, followed by a noun or an -ing verb, as in bent on mischief, bent on vengeance, bent on going to Texas. Without on, the word slides toward its other senses, so it rarely stands alone. It usually follows be or trails a noun (an ape posse, bent on vengeance), and hell-bent is the intensified form.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A natural inclination or talent for a particular activity or subject.

   The boy had a mechanical bent and loved taking engines apart.

   Her scientific bent made the research career an obvious choice.

   Similaraptitude, flair, talent, gift, inclination

   Note

   The talent sense carries a Shakespearean idiom. Shakespeare's Hamlet has “They fool me to the top of my bent,” and the top of one's bent still means someone at full stretch. John Crowley used it in The New York Times in 1985, writing that The Kingdom of the Wicked was “not Mr. Burgess at the top of his bent.” In plainer use, it takes for: a natural bent for painting.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A predisposition that shapes how someone acts or reacts in a given situation.

   His combative bent turned even small disagreements into arguments.

   A skeptical bent led her to question every claim she heard.

   Similardisposition, streak, tendency, inclination

   Note

   Where a talent takes for, this sense prefers of and an adjective: a mind of a technical bent, a person of a skeptical bent. It describes a cast of temperament rather than a gift. It also pairs readily with a possessive and an adjective, as in his combative bent.

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquialUK

   Corrupt or dishonest, especially of someone in a position of trust who breaks the rules for personal gain.

   Everyone on the estate knew the local copper was bent.

   He made his money through a string of bent property deals.

   Similarcrooked

   Oppositehonest, straight

   Note

   British colloquial speech uses it for dishonesty in people who are supposed to be straight: a bent copper, a bent deal. Crooked, its near-synonym, makes the same journey from shape to character. Keep it apart from the career-criminal meaning. A bent official works inside a legitimate role and abuses it, whereas a person bent in that other sense has made crime a way of life.

7. 7
   noun

   The state of being curved, crooked, or inclined away from a straight line.

   The bent of the bow gave it surprising power.

   Engineers measured the bent in the beam after the load test.

   Similarcurve, curvature, crook

   Note

   The literal curve behind the figurative senses: the bent of a bow is how far it is drawn. John Wilkins's Mathematical Magick (1648) measures the force a bow has in discharge “according to several bents,” treating curvature as something that comes in degrees. Because the noun is countable here, one bent can be compared with another, as an engineer compares a beam before and after loading.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A particular direction or tendency; the course that something takes.

   The discussion took a more philosophical bent halfway through.

   The new director gave the company a greener bent.

   Similarturn, direction, slant, tendency

   Note

   Direction in the abstract: Locke, in Of the Conduct of the Understanding, follows the “bents and turns of the matter,” a pairing that keeps the picture of a winding course alive. In current use it rides on take or give with an adjective, as in a philosophical bent or a greener bent. It differs from a personal predisposition by attaching to discussions and organizations rather than temperaments.

9. 9
   adjective

   Engaged in or living a life of crime.

   By thirty he was thoroughly bent, running schemes across the city.

   Half the men he grew up with had gone bent before they turned twenty.

   Similarcrooked, criminal

   Oppositestraight, honest

10. 10
    adjectivederogatorycolloquialUK

    A derogatory slang term meaning homosexual.

    Schoolyard bullies would call any quiet, sensitive boy bent.

    He flinched whenever his uncle called anyone bent.

    Similargay, homosexual, queer

    Oppositestraight

    Note

    Treat it as a slur: derogatory British slang for gay, used to wound rather than describe. When Julie Webb of the NME asked Freddie Mercury in December 1974 whether he was “bent,” the word itself was the provocation, and he dodged it. Because the “corrupt” meaning lives in the same British register, a bent man can be heard either way. Outside reported speech, avoid it.

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