Meaning

12 senses
  1. An inclination or talent.

    He had a natural bent for painting.

    the top of one's bent

  2. A predisposition to act or react in a particular way.

    His mind was of a technical bent.

    a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way

  3. The state of being curved, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity.

    the bent of a bow

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

  5. Particular direction or tendency; flexion; course.

  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. Such a subunit as a reinforcement to, or integral part of, a bridge's framing.

  8. Tension; force of acting; energy; impetus.

  9. (countable, uncountable)Any of various stiff or reedy grasses.

  10. (countable, uncountable)Bentgrass (Agrostis spp.).

  11. (countable, uncountable)A grassy area, grassland.

    c. 1500, The Ballad of Chevy Chase Bowmen bickered upon the bent.

    an area of grassland unbounded by fences or hedges

  12. (countable, uncountable)Old dried stalks of grasses.

Examples

207 sentences
  1. Tom bent down and looked under the bed.

    Том нахилився і подивився під ліжком. — deniko

  2. He bent over to see insects in the flowerbed.

    Він нахилився вперед, щоб побачити комах на квітнику. — ChickenKiev

    ruОн наклонился, чтобы рассмотреть насекомых на клумбе. — odexed

  3. She bent down.

    Вона нахилилася. — deniko

    ruОна нагнулась. — sharptoothed

    deSie bückte sich. — Zaghawa

  4. The tree bent in the wind.

    ruДерево нагнулось от ветра. — marafon

  5. Tom bent down and kissed Mary.

Translations

2 languages

Origin

From Middle English bent-, preterite stem (as in bente, benten, etc.), and Middle English

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.

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.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: bents
Singularbent
Pluralbents

regular

Synonyms

9 synonyms
an inclination or talent:dispositionB2
Close in meaning
  • a special way of doing something:knackhang
  • a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way:set
  • grass for pastures and lawns especially bowling and putting greens:bent grassbent-grass

Word family

5 related words

Collocations

3 patterns
  • bent down and
  • bent down to
  • bent over to

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
bent — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto