Bend

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /bɛnd/

Definitions

1. A curved or angular deviation from a straight line or path
2. A deviation from a straight course resulting in a curve or angle occurs through an alteration of position or direction, which can also pertain to the act of flexing an object
3. To cause a straight object or part of the body to curve or change shape by applying force

Etymology: The verb "bend" is a close relative of "bind," and the two were once hard to tell apart in meaning. Its ancestor, Old English "bendan," meant to bind or fetter as well as to bend a bow, so tying something tight and curving it were treated as one action. The earliest sense was about restraint: to bind a prisoner or fasten something down. The root goes back to a Proto-Indo-European form meaning "to bind, tie," which passed into Proto-Germanic as "bandijanǫ," meaning "to bend." That shared ancestry explains a family of words still in English today. "Band," "bond," and "bind" all grew from the same base, so a band is literally something that binds, and a bond is a binding tie. Across the North Sea and Scandinavia, the same root survives in related verbs: Danish "bænde," Norwegian "bende," and Icelandic "benda" all mean to bend. The sense of bending was thus already present in the Germanic languages before English settled on its modern meaning.

Synonyms: curve, flex, twist, arch, crook

Antonyms: straighten, unbend, align