bend

English Online Dictionary. What means bend‎? What does bend mean?

English

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 bind, band, bond.

Pronunciation

• enPR: bĕnd, IPA^(key): /bɛnd/
• (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /bɪnd/
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Verb

bend (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.
4. (intransitive) To change direction.

5. (intransitive) To be inclined; to direct itself.
6. (intransitive, usually with "down") To stoop.

7. (intransitive) To bow in prayer, or in token of submission.
8. (transitive) To force to submit.
9. (intransitive) To submit.

10. (transitive) To apply to a task or purpose.
11. (intransitive) To apply oneself to a task or purpose.

12. (transitive) To adapt or interpret to for a purpose or beneficiary.
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.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

bend (plural bends)

1. A curve.
2. Any of the various knots which join the ends of two lines.
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.

   Coordinate terms: bendlet, cost, garter, riband, baton, scrape
5. (obsolete) Turn; purpose; inclination; ends.
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.

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

• bent

References

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at [1]

Anagrams

• D. Neb.

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *band (“drop”). Compare Phrygian βεδυ (bedu, “water”), Sanskrit बिन्दु (bindú, “drop”), Middle Irish banna, baina (“drop”) and possibly Latin Fōns Bandusiae.

Noun

bend m

1. pond, water reservoir
2. idle or provocative words
3. servant, henchman

Related terms

• përbindësh

Northern Kurdish

Noun

bend ?

1. slave

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From benda, bende (“to bend”).

Noun

bend n (definite singular bendet, indefinite plural bend, definite plural benda)

1. a bend
2. a bent position
3. a butt on a thick rope

Participle

bend (neuter bendt, definite singular and plural bende)

1. past participle of benda

Verb

bend

1. imperative of benda

References

• “bend” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Alternative forms

• bænd, beand

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bend/

Noun

bend m

1. bond, coil
2. ribbon
3. crown, ornament

Declension

Strong a-stem:

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “bend”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[2], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Sara M. Pons-Sanz (2013) The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandanavian Linguistic Contact on Old English, Turhout, Belgium: Brepolis Publishers, page 72

Old Norse

Participle

bend

1. inflection of bendr:
   1. strong feminine nominative singular
   2. strong neuter nominative/accusative plural

Verb

bend

1. second-person singular active imperative of benda

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bend.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbẽd͡ʒi/

Noun

bend m (plural bends)

1. (music, electric guitar) bend (change in pitch produced by bending a string)

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From English band.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bênd/

Noun

bȅnd m (Cyrillic spelling бе̏нд)

1. (music) band (group of musicians)

Declension