Definition of "bend"

bend

/bɛnd/

verb
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.
2. (intransitive) To become curved.
3. (transitive) To cause to change direction.
  Quotations
  Bend thine ear to supplication.
  1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Towards Coventry bend we our course.
  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, [Act IV, scene viii]
  bending her eyes on the floor
  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
4. (intransitive) To change direction.
5. (intransitive) To be inclined; to direct itself.
  Quotations
  to whom our vows and wishes bend
  1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646
6. (intransitive, usually with "down") To stoop.
7. (intransitive) To bow in prayer, or in token of submission.
  Quotations
  Each to his great Father bends.
  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
8. (transitive) To force to submit.
  Quotations
  Of liegers for her sweet, and which she afterExcept she bend her humour, shall be assuredTo taste of too.
  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, [Act I, scene v]
  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.
  2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3: Leviathan, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: 2181 Despoina
9. (intransitive) To submit.
10. (transitive) To apply to a task or purpose.
  Quotations
  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, [...]
  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, page 192
  when to mischief mortals bend their will
  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, canto III
11. (intransitive) To apply oneself to a task or purpose.
12. (transitive) To adapt or interpret to for a purpose or beneficiary.
  Quotations
  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.
  2011, Demetrios S. Katos, Palladius of Helenopolis: The Origenist Advocate, page 60
13. (transitive, nautical) To tie, as in securing a line to a cleat; to shackle a chain to an anchor; make fast.
14. (transitive, music) To smoothly change the pitch of a note.
15. (intransitive, nautical) To swing the body when rowing.
noun
plural bends
1. A curve.
  Quotations
  I hear the train a comin'/It's rolling round the bend
  1968, Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues
  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.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. Any of the various knots which join the ends of two lines.
  Quotations
  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.
  2012, Percy W. Blandford, Practical Knots and Ropework, page 67
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.
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, pages 63–64
5. (obsolete) Turn; purpose; inclination; ends.
  Quotations
  Farewell, poor swain; thou art not for my bend.
  1608, John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, act 1, scene 3
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.
10. (music) A glissando, or glide between one pitch and another.

Definition of "bend"

bend

verb

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noun

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