Sc. and north. dial. Also bensell, -sall, -sail, -sil, bent-sail. [a. ON. benzla (or benzl Vigf.) bending, bent, tension, f. benda to bend (a bow). The spelling bent-sail is merely conjectural. With quot. 1659 cf. Icel. taka boga af benzlum to take a bow out of bensel.] Bending, tension, spring (of mental faculties); strong bent or determination; impetus (of a body in motion).
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. xii. 37. Ourweltit wyth the bensell of the ayris [= oars].
1659. Durham, Scandal, 79 (Jam.). Men weary … for our spirits are soon out of bensall.
a. 1662. R. Baillie, Lett. (1775), II. 306 (Jam.). I found the bent-sail of the spirits of some so much on the engagement.
1734. A. Welwood, Glimpse Glory, ix. 192. Surely, if you be partakers of his [God’s] nature, you cannot but bend to him with a strong Bensil.
1807. Stagg, Poems (Cumberl. dial.), 61. A hangrell gang Com with a bensil owr the sea.
