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What does bent mean?

Definitions for bent
bɛntbent

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word bent.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. bent, setnoun

    a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way

    "the set of his mind was obvious"

  2. bent, bent grass, bent-grassnoun

    grass for pastures and lawns especially bowling and putting greens

  3. bentnoun

    an area of grassland unbounded by fences or hedges

  4. bent, knack, hangadjective

    a special way of doing something

    "he had a bent for it"; "he had a special knack for getting into trouble"; "he couldn't get the hang of it"

  5. bent, bent on(p), dead set(p), out to(p)adjective

    fixed in your purpose

    "bent on going to the theater"; "dead set against intervening"; "out to win every event"

  6. bended, bentadjective

    used of the back and knees; stooped

    "on bended knee"; "with bent (or bended) back"

  7. bent, crumpled, dentedadjective

    of metal e.g.

    "bent nails"; "a car with a crumpled front end"; "dented fenders"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Bentnoun

    Etymology: from the verb to bend.

    Strike gently, and hold your rod at a bent a little while. Izaak Walton, Angler.

    There are divers subtle inquiries concerning the strength required to the bending of them; the force they have in the discharge, according to the several bents; and the strength required to be in the string of them. John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick.

    A mountain stood,
    Threat’ning from high, and overlook’d the wood:
    Beneath the lowring brow, and on a bent,
    The temple stood of Mars armipotent. John Dryden, Pal. and Arc.

    Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
    Or thy affection cannot hold the bent. William Shakespeare, Tw. Night.

    We both obey,
    And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
    To lay our service freely at your feet. William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

    The understanding should be brought to the knotty parts of knowledge, that try the strength of thought, and a full bent of the mind, by insensible degrees. John Locke.

    O who does know the bent of womens fantasy! Fairy Queen, b. i. cant. iv. stanz. 24.

    To your own bents dispose you; you’ll be found,
    Be you beneath the sky. William Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale.

    He knew the strong bent of the country towards the house of York. Francis Bacon, Henry VII.

    Soon inclin’d t’ admit delight,
    The bent of nature! John Milton, Par. Lost, b. xi. l. 597.

    The golden age was first; when man, yet new,
    No rule but uncorrupted reason knew;
    And, with a native bent, did good pursue. John Dryden, Ovid.

    Let there be the same propensity and bent of will to religion, and there will be the same sedulity and indefatigable industry. South.

    ’Tis odds but the scale turns at last on nature’s side, and the evidence of one or two senses gives way to the united bent and tendency of all the five. Francis Atterbury.

    Their unbelief we may not impute unto insufficiency in the mean which is used, but to the wilful bent of their obstinate hearts against it. Richard Hooker, b. v. § 22.

    Yet we saw them forced to give way to the bent, and current humour of the people, in favour of their ancient and lawful government. William Temple.

    Not a courtier,
    Although they wear their faces to the bent
    Of the king’s look, but hath a heart that is
    Glad at the thing they scoul at. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline.

    Two of them hath the very bent of honour. William Shakespeare, Much ado about Nothing.

    Then thy streight rule set virtue in my sight,
    The crooked line reforming by the right;
    My reason took the bent of thy command,
    Was form’d and polish’d by thy skilful hand. John Dryden, Pers.

    The exercising the understanding, in the several ways of reasoning, teacheth the mind suppleness, to apply itself more dexterously to bents and turns of the matter, in all its researches. John Locke.

    His spear, a bent both stiff and strong,
    And well near of two inches long;
    The pile was of a horse-fly’s tongue,
    Whose sharpness naught reversed. Michael Drayton, Nymphid.

    Then the flowers of the vines; it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent, which grows upon the cluster, in the first coming forth. Francis Bacon, Essays.

    June is drawn in a mantle of dark grass-green, upon his head a garland of bents, kingcups, and maidenhair. Henry Peacham, on Drawing.

Wikipedia

  1. Bent

    Bent is a song by American alternative rock band Matchbox Twenty. It was released in April 2000 as the lead single from their second album Mad Season. "Bent" became the band's first and only song to top the US Billboard Hot 100, reaching number one on the chart dated July 22, 2000 and spending one week at the position. The song also topped the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada for five nonconsecutive weeks.

ChatGPT

  1. bent

    Bent refers to something that is not straight or in its original shape, often curved or angled due to force or manipulation. It can also refer to a natural inclination or tendency towards a particular character, behavior, or action.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Bent

    of Bend

  2. Bent

    imp. & p. p. of Bend

  3. Bent

    changed by pressure so as to be no longer straight; crooked; as, a bent pin; a bent lever

  4. Bent

    strongly inclined toward something, so as to be resolved, determined, set, etc.; -- said of the mind, character, disposition, desires, etc., and used with on; as, to be bent on going to college; he is bent on mischief

  5. Bent

    the state of being curved, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity; as, the bent of a bow

  6. Bent

    a declivity or slope, as of a hill

  7. Bent

    a leaning or bias; proclivity; tendency of mind; inclination; disposition; purpose; aim

  8. Bent

    particular direction or tendency; flexion; course

  9. Bent

    a transverse frame of a framed structure

  10. Bent

    tension; force of acting; energy; impetus

  11. Bentnoun

    a reedlike grass; a stalk of stiff, coarse grass

  12. Bentnoun

    a grass of the genus Agrostis, esp. Agrostis vulgaris, or redtop. The name is also used of many other grasses, esp. in America

  13. Bentnoun

    any neglected field or broken ground; a common; a moor

Wikidata

  1. Bent

    Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman. It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives. The title of the play refers to the slang word "bent" used in some European countries to refer to homosexuals. When the play was first performed, there was only a trickle of historical research or even awareness about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. In some regards, the play helped increase that historical research and education in the 1980s and 1990s. The play starred Ian McKellen in its original 1979 West-End production, and Richard Gere in its original 1980 Broadway production. In 1989, Sean Mathias directed a revival of the play, performed as a one-night benefit for Stonewall, featuring Ian McKellen, Richard E Grant, Ian Charleson, and Ralph Fiennes. After receiving critical acclaim, Mathias directed a full run in 1990, with Ian McKellen, Paul Rhys, and Christopher Eccleston, which won the City Limits Award for Revival of the Year. In 1997, Martin Sherman adapted Bent into a film of the same name, which was directed by Sean Mathias.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Bent

    bent, pa.t. and pa.p. of Bend.

  2. Bent

    bent, n. leaning or bias: tendency: intention: natural inclination of the mind towards anything: the condition of being bent, curved form: (rare) slope or declivity: (Shak.) a cast, as of the eye: the extent to which a bow may be bent—degree of tension, capacity of endurance, as in the phrase 'to the top of one's bent' = to the full measure of one's inclination. [See Bend.]

  3. Bent

    bent, n. any stiff or wiry grass: the old dried stalks of grasses: a special genus (Agrostis) containing about sixty species of grasses, all slender and delicate in appearance, and some useful as pasture-grasses and for hay: a place covered with such, a heath: a hillside.—Often Bent′-grass.—Ben′net is a variant, a name applied to the wild barley-grass.—adj. Bent′y.—To take to the bent (Scot.), to fly to the moors, to escape from some danger by flight. [A.S. beonet, found in place-names, as Beonetléah, Bentley; the history is obscure, but the word is doubtless Teut.; cf. Ger. binse.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. bent

    The trivial name of the Arundo arenaria, or coarse unprofitable grass growing on the sea-shore.

Rap Dictionary

  1. bentverb

    Drunk. It doesn't matter if I'm dead sober or I'm bent -- Heltah Skeltah (Therapy).

  2. bentverb

    Sad. You got me bent like elbows, amongst other things -- OutKast (Aliens).

  3. bentverb

    Whipped or in love. Tell me why you just can't take a hint that I'm with someone else that's got me bent. -- Sisqo (homewreaker") mixed up with someone else. fu**ed up or messed up. (you got me bent!)

Suggested Resources

  1. bent

    Song lyrics by bent -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by bent on the Lyrics.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. BENT

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Bent is ranked #7001 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Bent surname appeared 4,785 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 would have the surname Bent.

    60.2% or 2,884 total occurrences were White.
    29.4% or 1,408 total occurrences were Black.
    6.4% or 307 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    2.4% or 115 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    0.8% or 40 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
    0.6% or 31 total occurrences were Asian.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'bent' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4280

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce bent?

How to say bent in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of bent in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of bent in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of bent in a Sentence

  1. Harriete Estel Berman:

    Recently we've been confronted with the current administration's destabilization of the idea of truth, ever since the presidential election of 2016, the concept of truth, which I considered an absolute, has been bent.

  2. Doug Sanders:

    I thought in my mind that I had already won it but you shouldn't really do that, i walked up to my ball, looked down at the line and saw what I thought was a pebble. I bent over to get it but it wasn't a pebble, it was just where the sun had burned the grass.

  3. Irena Ryjova:

    It was just lying there, on its back, knees slightly bent like someone would lie on the sand at the beach.

  4. Ali Hughson:

    We started with an octagon shape framework then I bent the wood round to make the circular frame, it was a relief when I realized it would fit.

  5. President Obama:

    My strong preference has always been to legislate when I can get legislation done, in my first two years I wasn't relying on executive powers because I had big majorities in the Congress and we were able to get bills done, get bills passed. And even after we lost the majorities in Congress, I bent over backwards consistently to try to find compromise.

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Popularity rank by frequency of use

bent#1#9985#10000

References

Translations for bent

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"bent." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/bent>.

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    applied to a fish depicted horizontally
    A tantamount
    B flabby
    C naiant
    D lacerate

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