bend

Etymology

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.

verb

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.
4. (intransitive) To change direction.
   The road bends to the right.
5. (intransitive) To be inclined; to direct itself.
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.
8. (transitive) To force to submit.
   They bent me to their will.
   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.
   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.
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.
    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.
    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.

noun

1. A curve.
   There's a sharp bend in the road ahead.
   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.
   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.
   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.
   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.
   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.
   the midship bends
10. (music) A glissando, or glide between one pitch and another.