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# bend

«bend» in Mova's school dictionary: **to make something curved, not straight** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (bend, bends, bent, bending); noun (a bend, bends)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To bend is to make something curved, not straight. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#m1)

2) To bend is to lean your body forward or down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#m2)

3) A bend is a curve in a road, river or pipe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#m3)

4) To bend the rules is to break them a little. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

a word of the story, sometimes a wire bent into a shape whose length is the perimeter; in science, light bends in water; phrases «bend down», «bend over», «bend the rules», «around the bend»

### examples

- He bends a 24 cm wire into a square. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x1)
- The road has 3 bends. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x2)
- She bent the straw in half. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x3)
- How long is each side of the bent wire square? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x4)
- Bend your knees when you lift a heavy box. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x5)
- She bent down to tie her shoe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x6)
- Drive slowly round the bend. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x7)
- A straw looks bent in a glass of water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x8)
- The river bends around the hill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x9)
- Don't bend the rules of the game. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x10)
- "Where?" said Woe, bending down; "I can't see a thing." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/#x11)

### note

A wire bent into a shape keeps its length: the length is the perimeter. Trap: bending in half makes two parts of half the length. Past form «bent», not «bended». Safety: lift with bent knees and a straight back.

### In the corpora

- [Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling standing on a scaffold and bending his head back, not lying down.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/42-olympiad-picture-puzzles/13/)
- [When a perching bird bends its legs, tendons pull its toes tight round the branch, so it can sleep without falling off.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight/15/)
- [A chimpanzee bends branches into a fresh bed every single night, a bit like making your bed but starting with a tree.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/245-more-builders-caddis-cases-paper-wasps-moles-apes-beds-and-sand-circles/2/)
- [Muscles can only pull, never push, so they work in pairs: the biceps bends the elbow and the triceps straightens it.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/360-muscles-and-joints-by-name-biceps-triceps-knees-elbows-and-the-busiest-muscles/7/)
- [Bamboo stems are hollow with solid joints, which makes them strong and light, and bamboo bends without breaking and grows back quickly.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/380-china-s-plants-bamboo-ginkgo-lotus-tea-and-rice-paddies/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «bend» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bend/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.