BENDING • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Bending

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/bˈɛndɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Bending n. The marking of the clothes with stripes or horizontal bands. (Obs.)

verb

Bend v. t. (past & past part. bent; pres. part. bending)

1.

To strain or move out of a straight line; to crook by straining; to make crooked; to curve; to make ready for use by drawing into a curve; as, to bend a bow; to bend the knee.

2.

To turn toward some certain point; to direct; to incline. "Bend thine ear to supplication." "Towards Coventry bend we our course." "Bending her eyes... upon her parent."

3.

To apply closely or with interest; to direct. "To bend his mind to any public business." "But when to mischief mortals bend their will."

4.

To cause to yield; to render submissive; to subdue. "Except she bend her humor."

5.

(Naut.) To fasten, as one rope to another, or as a sail to its yard or stay; or as a cable to the ring of an anchor.

To bend the brow, to knit the brow, as in deep thought or in anger; to scowl; to frown.

Synonyms: To lean; stoop; deflect; bow; yield.

Bend v. i. (past & past part. bent; pres. part. bending)

1.

To be moved or strained out of a straight line; to crook or be curving; to bow. "The green earth's end Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend."

2.

To jut over; to overhang. "There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep."

3.

To be inclined; to be directed. "To whom our vows and wished bend."

4.

To bow in prayer, or in token of submission. "While each to his great Father bends."

See images of 'Bending'

Etymology of 'Bending'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bending" Quotes from Famous Books

... out his wine. He took what she gave him, and no more—like a child—and we all three sat together at a window as the evening gathered in. When it was almost dark, he lay down on a sofa, Agnes pillowing his head and bending over him a little while; and when she came back to the window, it was not so dark but I could see tears glittering ...

— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... Carter might feel that way too," said the lady bending over a rose geranium and pinching a leaf ...

— The City of Fire • Grace Livingston Hill

... will be found that in the higher crania the basicranial axis becomes shorter relatively to the cerebral length; that the 'olfactory angle' and 'occipital angle' become more obtuse; and that the 'cranio-facial angle' becomes more acute by the bending down, as it were, of the facial axis upon the cranial axis. At the same time, the roof of the cranium becomes more and more arched, to allow of the increasing height of the cerebral hemispheres, which is eminently characteristic of man, ...

— Lectures and Essays • T.H. Huxley

... back the curtain of her bedroom. Her voice, as she murmured the words, was full of a joyous delight; eagerness and yearning expressed themselves in her bending attitude, her parted lips and eyes intent upon ...

— The Testing of Diana Mallory • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... supports in several places were wrenched loose from the wall; the steel spans hung free in air, while white smoke lifted unceasingly toward the summit of the vast shed. On the tracks the cars were burning briskly. Presently it could also be seen that the south end of the roof was bending of its own weight. It bent first just a little—then more. Then for a long moment it hung motionless, or with but the faintest quiver of vibration. Then, out of the sightless cavern came the screeching sound of metal scraping ...

— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble

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