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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bent.

Folded or dented out of its usual shape.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/bɛnt/UK, US
  1. Folded or dented out of its usual shape.

  2. Corrupt, dishonest.

    UK · colloquial
  3. Homosexual.

    UK · colloquial · derogatory
  4. Determined or insistent; inclined, set.

    with-on
    He was bent on going to Texas, but not even he could say why.
    They were bent on mischief.
  5. Annoyed; out of sorts; having a bee in one's bonnet.

    She was bent about "certain kinds of people" having civil rights; she wanted to roll those back.
  6. leading a life of crime.

  7. Inaccurately aimed.

    slang
    That shot was so bent it left the pitch.
  8. Suffering from the bends.

    US · colloquial
  9. High from both marijuana and alcohol.

    slang
    Man, I am so bent right now!
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bent-, preterite stem (as in bente, benten, etc.), and Middle English bent, ibent, ybent, past participle forms of Middle English benden (“to bend”). Equivalent to bend + -t.

noun/bɛnt/UK, US
  1. An inclination or talent.

    He had a natural bent for painting.
    the top of one's bent
  2. A predisposition to act or react in a particular way.

    His mind was of a technical bent.
  3. The state of being curved, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity.

    the bent of a bow
  4. A declivity or slope, as of a hill.

  5. Particular direction or tendency; flexion; course.

  6. A transverse frame of a framed structure; a subunit of framing. Such a subunit as a component of a barn's framing, joined to other bents by girts and summer beams.

  7. A transverse frame of a framed structure; a subunit of framing. Such a subunit as a reinforcement to, or integral part of, a bridge's framing.

  8. Tension; force of acting; energy; impetus.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English bent-, preterite stem (as in bente, benten, etc.), and Middle English bent, ibent, ybent, past participle forms of Middle English benden (“to bend”). Equivalent to bend + -t.

noun/bɛnt/UK, US
  1. Any of various stiff or reedy grasses.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Bentgrass (Agrostis spp.).

    countable · uncountable
  3. A grassy area, grassland.

    countable · uncountable
  4. Old dried stalks of grasses.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bent, benet, from Old English *beonot (attested only in place-names and personal names), from Proto-West Germanic *binut (“reed, rush”), of uncertain origin.

verb/bɛnt/UK, US
  1. simple past and past participle of bend

    form-of · participle · past
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bent-, preterite stem (as in bente, benten, etc.), and Middle English bent, ibent, ybent, past participle forms of Middle English benden (“to bend”). Equivalent to bend + -t.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.