bent

• (UK, US) enPR: bĕnt, IPA^(key): /bɛnt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

From bend.

bent

1. simple past tense and past participle of bend

bent (comparative benter or more bent, superlative bentest or most bent)

1. (Of something that is usually straight) folded, dented
2. (derogatory, colloquial, chiefly Britain) Homosexual.
3. Determined or insistent.

   He was bent on going to Texas, but not even he could say why.

   They were bent on mischief.

   • 2017 July 7, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “The ambitious War For The Planet Of The Apes ends up surrendering to formula”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     […] 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.

4. (Of a person) leading a life of crime.
5. (slang, soccer) inaccurately aimed

   That shot was so bent it left the pitch.

6. (colloquial, chiefly US) Suffering from the bends
7. (slang) High from both marijuana and alcohol.

   Man, I am so bent right now!

• (folded): crooked
• (homosexual): queer

• bent as a nine-bob note

• (determined): hell-bent

bent (plural bents)

1. An inclination or talent.

   He had a natural bent for painting.

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

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wilkins to this entry?)

4. A declivity or slope, as of a hill.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

5. Particular direction or tendency; flexion; course.
   • John Locke

     bents and turns of the matter

6. (carpentry) A transverse frame of a framed structure.
7. Tension; force of acting; energy; impetus.
   • Norris

     the full bent and stress of the soul

• (an inclination or talent): disposition, predilection, proclivity, propensity, see also Thesaurus:predilection

From Middle English bent, benet, from Old English *beonet- (attested only in place-names and personal names), from Proto-Germanic *binutaz (“reed, rush”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Saxon binitin (“made of reeds”), Old High German binuz (modern German Binse (“rush, reed”)).

bent (countable and uncountable, plural bents)

1. Any of various stiff or reedy grasses.
   • Drayton

     His spear a bent, both stiff and strong.

   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes’, The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales, Folio Society 2005, p. 121:

     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 [...].

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 9

     Clusters of strong flowers rose everywhere above the coarse tussocks of bent.

2. A grassy area, grassland.
   • The Ballad of Chevy Chase

     Bowmen bickered upon the bent.

3. The old dried stalks of grasses.

(grass): bentgrass

Created in analogy to Dutch ben (“am”). Modern Dutch bent has replaced the Middle Dutch verb forms bes and best (“(you) are (sg.)”).[1]

• IPA^(key): /bɛnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

bent

1. second-person singular present indicative of zijn; are.

From benn, following the example of alant and lent.[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɛnt]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bent

bent

1. inside

• benn

• kinn, kint

• bynt

From Old English beonet, compare Middle English bent.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛnt/

bent (plural bents)

1. (archaic, 14th century) Coarse or wiry grass growing upon moorlands.
2. (archaic, 15th century) An area covered with coarse or wiry grass; a moor.

• benty (covered in bent)

From Persian بند‎ (band).

bent (definite accusative {{{1}}}, plural {{{2}}})

1. dam