bent 1
/bent/ , adj.
1. curved; crooked: a bent bow; a bent stick.
2. determined; set; resolved (usually fol. by on ): to be bent on buying a new car.
3. Chiefly Brit. Slang.
a. morally crooked; corrupt.
b. stolen: bent merchandise.
c. homosexual.
n.
4. direction taken, as by one's interests; inclination: a bent for painting.
5. capacity of endurance: to work at the top of one's bent.
6. Civ. Eng. a transverse frame, as of a bridge or an aqueduct, designed to support either vertical or horizontal loads.
7. Archaic. bent state or form; curvature.
[ 1525-35; orig. ptp. of BEND 1 ]
Syn. 1. bowed, flexed. 2. fixed. 4. tendency, propensity, proclivity, predilection, penchant, partiality, leaning, bias.
bent 2
/bent/ , n.
1. See bent grass .
2. a stalk of bent grass.
3. Scot. , Northern Eng. (formerly) any stiff grass or sedge.
4. Brit. Dial. a moor; heath; tract of uncultivated, grassy land, used as a pasture or hunting preserve.
[ 1300-50; ME; earlier benet-, bunet- (in compounds), OE beonet-, beonot- (in place names); c. OHG binuz (cf. G Binse ) rush ]