Forms: 1 bend, 5–6 bende. [Apparently originally English, as a sense of the prec. word: see the early quotations. But afterwards naturally identified with OF. bende (mod.Fr. bande): see BAND sb.2; whence the later sense-development. Now used only in the Heraldic and technical senses 3, 4 (if 4 really belongs here).
The OF. bende, bande, corresponds to med.L. binda, benda, Lombard benda, It. benda, banda, Sp. and Pg. venda and banda; pointing to a Romanic adoption of OHG. bindâ, ‘band, fillet, tie, sash,’ and also of Gothic bandi or other equivalent of OE. bend, with similar sense.]
† 1. A thin flat strip adapted to bind round.
† a. A riband, fillet, strap, band, used for ornament or as part of a dress; a sash, swaddling-band, hat-band, bandage; = BAND sb.2 1–5. Obs. or ? dial.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 152. Diadema, bend aʓimmed and ʓesmiðed. Ibid., Nimbus, mid golde ʓesiwud bend.
c. 1205. Lay., 24747. And mid æne bende of golde ælc hafde his hæfd biuonge.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2517. Vche burne … a bauderyk schulde haue, A bende a belef hym aboute, of a bryȝt grene.
c. 1450. Crt. of Love, 810. A bend of golde and silke.
1463. in Bury Wills (1850), 41. My bende for an hat of blak sylk and silvir. Item to John Coote my bende of whit boon with smale bedys of grene.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W.), I. xlviii. (1495), 93* b/1. A lytyll bende, to swadle a lytyll chylde beynge in his cradle.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. iii. (ii.) 138. About my heid ane gairland or a bend.
1552. Huloet, Bende, fillet or kerchiefe. amiculum.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 365. Bast dogs haire down to a bend or piece of cloth, and fasten the same close to the said forehead.
1790. Grose, Prov. Gloss., Bend, a border of a woman’s cap; north.
1791–9. Statist. Acc. Scot., XI. 173 (Jam.). The [Archery] prize (at Kilwinning), from 1488 to 1688, was a sash, or as it was called, a benn … a piece of Taffeta or Persian, of different colours, chiefly red, green, white, and blue.
† b. Anat. A band, a ligament. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. v. The þridde curtel foloweþ, þat hat ‘cerotica’ [sclerotica], þat … defendeþ all þe oþer from þe hardnesse of þe bon, and is as it were þe bende [ligamentum] of þe ye.
† e. A scroll or riband in decorative work. ? Obs.
c. 1535. in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 206. And for 246 bends or poses … set up in the same windows.
1743. A. Milne, in Wade, Melrose Abbey (1861), 33. On the East of this Window there is a Niche, having a Monk for the Supporter of the Statue, holding a Bend with each Hand about his Breast.
[1861. Wade, ibid., 314. That on the last buttress is upheld by a venerable monk, bearing a band or scroll.]
† 2. A ‘stripe’ inflicted by a lash or rod. Obs. rare. (Also in form band, belonging to BAND sb.2 after sense 8.)
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 2394. He bar a scourge with cordes ten … Efter ilka band brast out the blode.
a. 1500. Peebles to Play. Quoth he, ‘Thy back sall bear ane bend’; ‘In faith,’ quoth she, ‘we meit not.’
3. Her. An ordinary formed by two parallel lines drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base of the shield, containing the fifth part of the field in breadth, or the third if charged. (See quot. 1872.) Bend sinister: a similar ordinary drawn in the opposite direction: one of the marks of bastardy. Cf. BATON. In bend: placed bendwise. Parted per bend: divided bendwise.
c. 1430. Syr Gener., 3924. Armes he bereth riche and clene, With bendes of gold wel besene.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxciv. 170. Euery bataylle had cote armures of grene clothe and therof the ryght quarter was yelowe with whyte bendes, wherfor that parlement was callyd the parlement of the whyte bende.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 33 b. Thei are called Bendes.
1598. Drayton, Heroic. Ep., xxi. 95. That Lyon plac’d in our bright Silver bend.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., i. (1634), 9. Some [bare] their Fathers whole Coate … in bend dexter. Ibid. Yet it is the custome with vs, and in France, to allow them for Noble, by giving them sometimes their Fathers proper Coate, with a Bend sinister.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 48. A Bend is esteemed the best Ordinarie, being a Belt born in its true posture athwart.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, I. 74. Parted per Bend Sinister.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xii. The bend of bastardy upon the shield yonder.
1872. Ruskin, Eagle’s N., § 235. The Bend … represents the sword-belt.
4. A shape or size in which ox- or cow-hides are tanned into leather, forming half of a ‘butt.’
A ‘butt’ is the entire hide of the back and flanks reduced to a rough rectangle, by what is technically called ‘rounding,’ i.e., cutting off the surrounding thinner parts (the hide of the head and shoulders, and of the belly and shanks on each side of the ‘butt’). When this is cut in two by a line down the middle of the back, before tanning (as is mostly done in Scotland and the north of England), each half is called a ‘bend.’ Butts and bends contain the thickest and strongest hide, the qualities of which are further developed by special processes in tanning, so as to make the stoutest leather. Hence
b. Bend-leather (orig. northern): the leather of a ‘bend,’ i.e., the thickest and stoutest kind of leather (from the back and flanks), used for soles of boots and shoes; sole-leather.
1600. Heywood, 1 K. Edw., Wks. 1874, I. 40. I had rather than a bend of leather Shee and I might smouch together.
1865. Times, 29 April, 11/1. An average amount of business has been done in leather during the month. Foreign heavy butts and bends have been in only moderate demand, but those of light substance have moved off freely.
b. 1581. Lambarde, Eiren., IV. 164. If any tanner have raised with any mixture any hide to bee converted to backes, bend-leather, clowting-leather.
1709. Blair, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 76. Of Substance not unlike to English Bend or Sole-Leather.
1811. Scott, in Lockhart (1839), III. 344. Sir … can you say anything clever about bend leather?
1880. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 254. But Jem was a tough one and never knew pains In his vulcanite bowels and bend-leather brains.
