Forms: 1– bend; also 3 biend, 4 beend. [Com. Teut., OE. bęnd str. fem. (pl. bęnda) = OS. bendi, OFris. bende, MDu. bende, Goth. bandi:—OTeut. *bandjâ-, f. band-, stem of bindan to BIND; also in OE. str. masc. (pl. bęndas). This is the original English word, now superseded, exc. in nautical use, by the cognate BAND sb.1, BOND, from ON., the senses of which ran in ME. alongside of those of bend, so as to make it appear only another phonetic variant of those. The OE. pl. benda remained in ME. as bende in collective sense of ‘bonds, imprisonment.’]
† 1. Anything with which one’s body or limbs are bound; a band, bond, or fetter. pl. collective, Bonds, fetters, confinement, imprisonment. Obs.
c. 890. K. Ælfred, Bæda, IV. xxii. (Bosw.). Þa benda sumes ʓehæftes.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. cvi[i]. 13. Heora bendas towearp.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xi. 2. Ða Johannes on benduin [Hatton benden] ʓehyrde Christes weoruc.
c. 1175. Moral Ode, 180, in Lamb. Hom., 171. For lesen hi of bende. Ibid., 289. In þo loþe biende [Trin. MS. in þe loðe bende].
c. 1205. Lay., 18459. Þe king heom lette binden mid irene bænde [1250 bendes].
c. 1300. Beket, 15. Oft in feteres and in othe[r] bende.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 457. To brynge me out of bendes. Ibid., 837. Gamelyn leet unfetere his brother out of beende.
† b. fig. The ‘fetters’ or ‘shackles’ of habit, etc.; custody, keeping; = BAND sb.1 8.
971. Blickl. Hom., 9. Þa wæs ʓesended þæt goldhord … on þone bend þæs clænan innoðes.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 63. Ac þat … unbindeð þe bendes of wiðerfulnesse.
† c. A moral or spiritual bond or restraint; the bands or bonds of matrimony. = BAND sb.1 9.
c. 1250. Owl & Night., 1426. Thurh chirche bende. Ibid., 1470. Thah spusing bendes thuncheth sore.
1340. Ayenb., 48. Þet ne habbeþ nenne bend ne of wodewehod ne of spoushod.
† d. ‘Confinement’ at child-birth: ‘Our Lady’s Bands’: see BAND sb.1 1 c.
1297. R. Glouc., 379. Ȝyf God me wole grace sende Vorto make my chyrche gon, & bringe me of þys bende.
c. 1330. King of Tars, 539. By the fourti wikes ende, Heo was delyvered out of beende, Thorw help of Marie mylde.
† 2. A clamp or band (of iron, etc.) for strengthening a box, etc.; a connecting piece by which the parts of anything are bound together; = BAND sb.1 4, 5. Obs.
c. 1225. Ancr. R., 382. Ibunden mid iren … and mid brode þicke bendes.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 4. Somme plowes haue a bende of yron.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 30. Huge great yron chests, and coffers strong, All bard with double bends.
3. Naut. A knot, used to unite one rope to another, or to something else; there are various kinds, as the cable bend, carrick bend, fisherman’s bend, etc. (The only extant sense.)
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Bend, the knot by which one rope is fastened to another.
1819. Rees, Cycl., s.v. Bends, For a carrick bend, lay the end of a rope, or hawser, across its standing part.
1829. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 114. Taking a bend on the bight of the rope.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xiv. He taught me a fisherman’s bend, which he pronounced to be the king of all knots.
† 4. Comb. bend-ful, (obs.), a bandful, a bundle.
a. 1480[?]. Kyng & Hermit, 169, in Hazl., E. P. P., 20. The frere he had bot barly stro, Two thake bendsfull without mo.
