bent

verbadjectivenounnouncommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//bɛnt//

Folded or dented out of its usual shape.

verb

1
Also a form of bendsimple past and past participle of bend

Etymology

From Middle English bent-, preterite stem (as in bente, benten, etc.), and Middle English bent, ibent, ybent, past participle forms of Middle English benden (“to bend”). Equivalent to bend + -t.

adjective

1
Folded or dented out of its usual shape.
2
Corrupt, dishonest.
3
Homosexual.
Asked bluntly by Julie Webb of the NME whether he was “bent” in December 1974, Freddie answered evasively: “You're a crafty cow. […]”
4
Determined or insistent; inclined, set.
He was bent on going to Texas, but not even he could say why.
They were bent on mischief.
[…]in the ape posse, bent on vengeance, traversing landscapes clothed in snow and bristling with California red fir and silver pine, spooking human stragglers, and running across fresh graves as they search for the nameless colonel and try to piece together why the humans are killing each other.
5
Annoyed; out of sorts; having a bee in one's bonnet.
Near-synonym: butthurt
She was bent about "certain kinds of people" having civil rights; she wanted to roll those back.
6
leading a life of crime.
7
slangInaccurately aimed.
That shot was so bent it left the pitch.
8
Suffering from the bends.
9
slangHigh from both marijuana and alcohol.
Man, I am so bent right now!

noun

1
An inclination or talent.
He had a natural bent for painting.
the top of one's bent
They fool me to the top of my bent.
“The Kingdom of the Wicked” is not Mr. Burgess at the top of his bent. It is not schlock.
2
A predisposition to act or react in a particular way.
His mind was of a technical bent.
3
The state of being curved, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity.
the bent of a bow
the force they have in the discharge , according to several bents
4
A declivity or slope, as of a hill.
Beneath the lowering brow, and on a bent, / The temple stood of Mars armipotent
5
Particular direction or tendency; flexion; course.
bents and turns of the matter
6
A transverse frame of a framed structure; a subunit of framing. Such a subunit as a component of a barn's framing, joined to other bents by girts and summer beams.
7
A transverse frame of a framed structure; a subunit of framing. Such a subunit as a reinforcement to, or integral part of, a bridge's framing.
8
Tension; force of acting; energy; impetus.
the full bent and stress of the soul

noun

1
Any of various stiff or reedy grasses.
His spear a bent, both stiff and strong.
Gunga Dass gave me a double handful of dried bents which I thrust down the mouth of the lair to the right of his, and followed myself, feet foremost [...].
Clusters of strong flowers rose everywhere above the coarse tussocks of bent.
2
Bentgrass (Agrostis spp.).
3
A grassy area, grassland.
c. 1500, The Ballad of Chevy Chase Bowmen bickered upon the bent.
4
Old dried stalks of grasses.

Etymology

From Middle English bent, benet, from Old English *beonot (attested only in place-names and personal names), from Proto-West Germanic *binut (“reed, rush”), of uncertain origin.

Forms

plural: bents
comparative: benter, more bent
superlative: bentest, most bent

benny · An amphetamine tablet.Benny · A nickname for a man named Benjamin.Benson · An English habitational surname from Old English from a place…

bent · Folded or dented out of its usual shape.

Bent · A surname Bentley · An English habitational surname from Old English.Benton · A small village in Bratton Fleming parish, North Devon…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.