# bend
## 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 band, bond.

### Pronunciation

* enPR: bĕnd, IPA: /bɛnd/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (pin–pen merger) IPA: /bɪnd/
* Rhymes: -ɛnd

### Verb

bend (third-person singular simple present bends, present participle bending, simple past and past participle bent or (archaic) bended)
* (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.
* (intransitive) To become curved.
    Look at the trees bending in the wind.
* (transitive) To cause to change direction.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Bend thine ear to supplication.
** 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, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii]:Towards Coventry bend we our course.
** 1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:bending her eyes on the floor
* (intransitive) To change direction.
    The road bends to the right.
* (intransitive) To be inclined; to direct itself.
** 1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:to whom our vows and wishes bend
* (intransitive, usually with "down") To stoop.
    He bent down to pick up the pieces.
* (intransitive) To bow in prayer, or in token of submission.
** 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, →OCLC:Each to his great Father bends.
* (transitive) To force to submit.
    They bent me to their will.
** 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:Of liegers for her sweet, and which she after Except she bend her humour, shall be assured To taste of too.
** 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3: Leviathan, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: 2181 Despoina: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.
* (intransitive) To submit.
    I am bending to my desire to eat junk food.
* (transitive) To apply to a task or purpose.
    He bent the company's resources to gaining market share.
** 1679, William Temple, “An Essay upon the Cure of Gout by Moxa. […]”, in Miscellanea. […], London: […] A. M. and R. R. for Edw[ard] Gellibrand, […], →OCLC, page 192: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, [...]
** 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, →OCLC, canto III:when to mischief mortals bend their will
* (intransitive) To apply oneself to a task or purpose.
    He bent to the goal of gaining market share.
* (transitive) To adapt or interpret to for a purpose or beneficiary.
** 2011, Demetrios S. Katos, Palladius of Helenopolis: The Origenist Advocate, page 60: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.
* (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.
* (transitive, music) To smoothly change the pitch of a note.
    You should bend the G slightly sharp in the next measure.
* (intransitive, nautical) To swing the body when rowing.

#### Derived terms

* backbend
* bendability
* bendable
* bend down
* bender
* bend one off
* bend one's elbow
* bend out of shape
* bend over
* bend over backwards
* bend somebody's ear
* bend someone's ear
* bend someone's will
* bend the brain
* bend the knee
* bend the rules
* bend the truth
* bend to one's will
* bend to someone's will
* brain-bending
* databend
* debend
* disbend
* genderbend
* inbend
* mind-bending
* on bended knee
* overbend
* prebend
* racebend
* rebend
* unbend
* upbend

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Noun

bend (plural bends)
* A curve.
    There's a sharp bend in the road ahead.
** 1968, Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues:I hear the train a comin'/It's rolling round the bend
** 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC: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.
* Any of the various knots which join the ends of two lines.
** 2012, Percy W. Blandford, Practical Knots and Ropework, page 67: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.
* (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.
* (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
** 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, pages 63–64: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.
* (obsolete) Turn; purpose; inclination; ends.
** 1608, John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, act 1, scene 3:Farewell, poor swain; thou art not for my bend.
* In the leather trade, the best quality of sole leather; a butt; sometimes, half a butt cut lengthwise.
* (mining) Hard, indurated clay; bind.
* (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.
* (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
* (music) A glissando, or glide between one pitch and another.

#### Derived terms

* above one's bend
* adjustable bend
* alpine butterfly bend
* anchor bend
* around the bend
* Ashley's bend
* becket bend
* bend dexter
* Bendgate
* bendless
* bendlet
* bendly
* bend of the arm
* bendopnea
* bend sinister
* bendsome
* bendwise
* bendy
* butterfly bend
* carrick bend
* double sheet bend
* East Bend
* Flemish bend
* Fort Bend County
* genderbend
* Great Bend
* Grecian bend
* hairpin bend
* harness bend
* heaving line bend
* Hunter's bend
* in bend
* J-bend
* L-bend
* North Bend
* offset overhand bend
* per bend
* per bend sinister
* racking bend
* return bend
* ring bend
* riverbend
* Rosendahl bend
* round the bend
* sagbend
* S-bend
* sheet bend
* sneck-bend
* South Bend
* string bend
* Tailem Bend
* U-bend
* upbend
* West Bend
* Z-bend
* zeppelin bend

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Related terms

* bent

### References

* The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at

### 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
* pond, water reservoir
* idle or provocative words
* servant, henchman

#### Related terms

* përbindësh

## Northern Kurdish
### Noun

bend ?
* slave

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology

From benda, bende (“to bend”).

### Noun

bend n (definite singular bendet, indefinite plural bend, definite plural benda)
* a bend
* a bent position
* a butt on a thick rope

### Participle

bend (neuter bendt, definite singular and plural bende)
* past participle of benda

### Verb

bend
* imperative of benda

### References

* “bend” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Old English
### Alternative forms

* bænd, beand

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /bend/

### Noun

bend m
* bond, coil
* ribbon
* crown, ornament

#### Declension

Strong a-stem:

### References

* Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “bend”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎, 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
* inflection of bendr:
** strong feminine nominative singular
** strong neuter nominative/accusative plural

### Verb

bend
* second-person singular active imperative of benda

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bend.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈbẽd͡ʒi/

### Noun

bend m (plural bends)
* (music, electric guitar) bend (change in pitch produced by bending a string)

## Serbo-Croatian
### Etymology

From English band.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /bênd/

### Noun

bȅnd m (Cyrillic spelling бе̏нд)
* (music) band (group of musicians)