What does bend mean?
Bend is one of English's most versatile everyday verbs, describing the act of forcing something straight into a curve or angle — whether bending a wire, bending your knees, or bending a branch toward you. It also works figuratively: people can be said to bend when they yield to pressure or make compromises, as in "she wouldn't bend on the price." As a noun, a bend is any curve or turn, most often in a road, river, or pipe, though it also names a class of knots used to join two ropes. The verb is irregular, with the past tense and participle both being "bent," and it appears in familiar idioms like "bend over backwards" (to try very hard) and "bend the rules" (to stretch them without breaking them). Derived forms include the adjective "bendable", the noun "bender", and the literary "unbending".
To force or move something into a curved or angled shape; to incline the body forward or downward; to yield or submit.
"He bent the wire into a hook."
Irregular: past tense and past participle are both "bent".
A curve or turn in something such as a road, river, or pipe; also, a knot used to join two ropes together.
"The car slowed as it approached a sharp bend in the road."
The nautical knot sense (e.g. sheet bend) is chiefly specialist usage.
Standard plural; also used in the phrase "the bends" referring to decompression sickness in divers.
"The road has several sharp bends through the mountains."
"Bend," "bind," "band," and "bundle" all come from the same ancient root — an old Germanic idea of twisting things together.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bend
Bend comes from Old English "bendan", meaning to bind or constrain with a cord, derived from the Proto-Germanic root *bund-/*band-, meaning to twist or bind. This makes it closely related to bind, band, bond, and bundle, all descendants of the same Germanic family. The modern sense of curving something developed from the older idea of flexing or straining a bow or cord.
Related word forms
How bend is actually used
Bend is irregular: past tense and past participle are both "bent". The figurative sense — yielding or compromising — is common in phrases like "bend to someone's will". "Bended" survives only in the fixed phrase "on bended knee".
Easily confused with bend
A band is a flat strip of material or a group of people, while to bend is to curve something.