| / English Dictionary |
BENT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A special way of doing something
Example:
he couldn't get the hang of it
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("bent" is a kind of...):
endowment; gift; natural endowment; talent (natural abilities or qualities)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way
Example:
the set of his mind was obvious
Synonyms:
bent; set
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("bent" is a kind of...):
disposition; inclination; tendency (an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An area of grassland unbounded by fences or hedges
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Hypernyms ("bent" is a kind of...):
grassland (land where grass or grasslike vegetation grows and is the dominant form of plant life)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Grass for pastures and lawns especially bowling and putting greens
Synonyms:
bent; bent-grass; bent grass
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("bent" is a kind of...):
grass (narrow-leaved green herbage: grown as lawns; used as pasture for grazing animals; cut and dried as hay)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bent"):
Agrostis canina; brown bent; dog bent; Rhode Island bent; velvet bent; velvet bent grass (common grass with slender stems and narrow leaves)
Agrostis nebulosa; cloud grass (Spanish grass with light feathery panicles grown for dried bouquets)
Agrostis palustris; creeping bent; creeping bentgrass (common pasture or lawn grass spread by long runners)
Holonyms ("bent" is a member of...):
Agrostis; genus Agrostis (annual or perennial grasses cosmopolitan in northern hemisphere: bent grass (so named from 'bent' meaning an area of unfenced grassland))
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of metal e.g.
Example:
dented fenders
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
damaged (harmed or injured or spoiled)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Used of the back and knees; stooped
Example:
with bent (or bended) back
Synonyms:
bended; bent
Classified under:
Similar:
unerect (not upright in position or posture)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Fixed in your purpose
Example:
out to win every event
Synonyms:
bent; bent on; dead set; out to
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
resolute (firm in purpose or belief; characterized by firmness and determination)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb bend
Context examples:
Her mother's thoughts she plainly saw were bent the same way, and she determined not to venture near her, lest she might hear too much.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Knees may or may not be bent.
(Fowler's Position, NCI Thesaurus)
And as he still bent down more and more while he was doing so, and trying to look straight into the eyes, his long hair fell down from his shoulders into the water.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
He skirted the frowning shores on rim ice that bent and crackled under foot and upon which they dared not halt.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
A sensation similar to an electrical shock radiating from the back of the head down the spine as the neck is bent forward.
(Lhermitte's sign, NCI Dictionary)
Sir Nigel bent his knee devoutly as he put foot on land, and taking a small black patch from his bosom he bound it tightly over his left eye.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You are still bent on going?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And Dorothy oiled them and the Scarecrow bent them carefully until they were quite free from rust and as good as new.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
I was really in pain for him; for your hard-hearted sister, Miss Anne, seems bent on cruelty.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Eclipses are very strong cosmic events that are bent on creating radical change, and the one in December was unusually sweet as sugar.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
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