[A late derivative of BEND v., appearing in the 16th c.]
I. Related to BEND v. II.
1. The action of the verb BEND; bending, incurvation; bent condition, flexure, curvature.
1597. Way to Thrift, 62. Too mickle bend will breake thy bow When the game is alder best.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Arts, I. 112. When the strong spring C is set on bend against the opposite ends of the pins.
c. 1806. A. Mackintosh, Driffield Angler, 229. The effect of the proper degree of bend.
1816. Byron, Ch. Har., III. cii. The gush of springs … the bend Of stirring branches.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 236. A wave just on the bend, and about to break over.
2. A bending of the body; a bow. Obs. except with defining words, as an instance of sense 1.
(Cf. the slang phrase Grecian Bend, denoting a certain bending forward of the body in walking, affected by some women c. 1872–80.)
1529. Lyndesay, Complaint, 181. With bendis and beckis For wantones.
a. 1550. Christis Kirk Gr., vi. Platefute he bobit up with bendis, For Mald he made requiest.
[Mod. With a quick bend of the body, a slight bend of the knee, etc.]
† 3. Inclination of the eye in any direction, glance. Obs. rare.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. ii. 123. That same eye whose bend doth awe the world.
4. Turn of mind, inclination, bent. Obs. except with defining words, as an instance of sense 1.
1591. in Harl. Misc. (1809), II. 211. For the more forcible attraction of these vnnaturall people (being weake of vnderstanding) to this their bend, these seedemen of treason bring certain bulles from the Pope.
a. 1610. Fletcher, Faithf. Sheph. (T.). Farewel, poor swain: thou art not for my bend.
c. 1815. Fuseli, Lect. Art, vii. (1848), 491. The prevalent bend of the reigning taste.
5. concr. A thing of bent shape; the bent part of anything, e.g., of a river, a road; a curve or crook.
c. 1600. Rob. Hood (Ritson), II. xi. 17. A herd of deer was in the bend All feeding before his face.
1727. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Flying, The bony part, or bend of the wing into which the feathers are inserted.
1803. Southey, Eng. Eclog., ix A long parade … Round yonder bend it reaches A furlong further.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xix. 319. At a bend of the river four miles below Paris.
1883. J. A. Henshall, in Century Mag., 378/2. The sproat is the hook beyond compare, the ne plus ultra, the perfection of fish-hooks in shank, bend, barb, and point.
6. Naut. (pl.) ‘The crooked timbers which make the ribs or sides of a ship’ (J.); the wales.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 11. The Orlope, the ports, the bend, the bowe. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., ii. 6. From bend to bend, or waile to waile, which are the outmost timbers on the ship sides, and are the chiefe strength of her sides, to which the foot-hookes, beames, and knees are bolted, and are called the first, second, and third Bend.
1725. Sloane, Jamaica, II. 344. A signal of distress from a plank being started on her bend, on the forepart of the ship.
1803. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), V. 127. She is to be caulked, her bends blacked and painted.
b. ‘The chock of the bowsprit.’ Smyth, Sailor’s Word.-bk.
† 7. See quot. (Perhaps belongs here.)
1847–78. Halliwell, Bend, a semicircular piece of iron used as part of a horse’s harness to hold up the chains when ploughing.
1881. Evans, Leicester Wds. (E. Dial. Soc.), 103. Bend, a piece of bent plate-iron which went over the back of the last horse at plough. Now (1848), disused.
II. Probably related to BEND v. V.
† 8. ‘A spring, a leap, a bound.’ Jamieson. Sc. Obs. [Cf. BEND v. 22.]
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. vi. 58. Befoir thaim all furth bowtis with a bend Nisus a far way.
1550. Lyndesay, Sqr. Meldrum, 519. Quhairon [a steed] he lap, and tuik his speir … And bowtit fordward with ane bend.
9. A long draught, ‘a pull of liquor.’ Jamieson. Only in Sc. [Cf. BEND v. 23.]
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., in Poems (1844), 31. Come, gie’s the other bend, We drink their healths, what ever way it end.
