bender

bend +‎ -er. In sense of “heavy drinking”, originally generally “spree”, from 1846,[1] of uncertain origin – vague contemporary sense of “something extraordinary”, connection to bend (e.g., bending elbow to drink) or perhaps from Scottish sense of “strong drinker”.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛndə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛndɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

bender (plural benders)

1. One who, or that which, bends.
2. A device to aid bending of pipes to a specific angle.
3. (slang) A bout of heavy drinking.

   He's been out on a bender with his mates.

   • 1857, Newspaper, April:[2]

     A couple of students of Williams College went over to North Adams on a bender. This would have been serious matter under the best of circumstances, but each returned with a “brick in his hat,” etc.

4. (chiefly Britain, slang, derogatory) A homosexual man.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 6,

     “So they're easy about having a bender in the house, are they, their lordships?”

5. A simple shelter, made using flexible branches or withies
6. (obsolete, Britain, slang) A sixpence.
   • 1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers 42:

     What will you take to be paid out?’ said the butcher. ‘The regular chummage is two–and–six. Will you take three bob?’ ‘And a bender,’ suggested the clerical gentleman. ‘Well, I don’t mind that; it’s only twopence a piece more,’ said Mr. Martin. ‘What do you say, now? We’ll pay you out for three–and–sixpence a week. Come!’

7. (obsolete, slang, US) A spree, a frolic.
8. (obsolete, slang, US) Something exceptional.

In sense “bout of heavy drinking”, usually in form “on a bender”.

• (bout of heavy drinking): binge, spree, toot
• (homosexual man): See Thesaurus:male homosexual
• (shelter): bender tent

• conduit bender
• pipe bender

bender

1. (obsolete, British slang) Used to express disbelief or doubt at what one has just heard. [early 19th c.]
2. (obsolete, British slang) Used to indicate that the previous phrase was meant sarcastically or ironically. [early 19th c.]

   O yes, I'll do it — bender!

• (disbelief): See Thesaurus:bullshit
• (sarcasm): I don't think, not

• Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang, p. 96
• Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld, London, Macmillan Co., 1949

• berend, rebend

bender

1. (transitive) to sell

• Bal Palazios, Santiago (2002), “bender”, in Dizionario breu de a luenga aragonesa, Zaragoza, →ISBN