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r changed; unyielding stiffness; inflexibleness; rigidity; firmness of will or purpose; unbending pertinacity; steadfastness; resoluteness; unchangeableness; obstinacy. The inflexibility of mechanism. A. Baxter. That grave inflexibility of soul. Churchill. The purity and inflexibility of their faith. T. Warton.…

An inflection; a bend or fold. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

He would insinuate with thee but to make thee sigh. Shak. To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs. Shak.

To bend or turn; to direct, as one's course or journey. [Archaic] Shak.

A straining, stretching, or bending; the state of being strained; as, the intension of a musical string.

A stretching or bending of the mind toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness. Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea. Locke.

A winding, bending, or twisting.

To turn or bend inward. "Introverted toes." Cowper.

Toward the inside; toward the center or interior; as, to bend a thing inward.

A machine for bending or straightening rails.

To bend the neck; to bow or duck the head. [Written also jook and jouk.] The money merchant was so proud of his trust that he went juking and tossing of his head. L' Estrange.

A bending of the knee, as in respect or courtesy. Give them title, knee, and approbation. Shak. Knee breeches. See under Breeches. -- Knee holly, Knee holm (Bot.), butcher's broom. -- Knee jerk (Physiol.) a jerk or kick produced by a blow or sudden strain upon the patellar tendon of the knee, which causes a sudden co…

To bend the knee; to fall or rest on the knees; -- sometimes with down. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Acts vii. 60. As soon as you are dressed, kneel and say the Lord's Prayer. Jer. Taylor.

A barrulet, or, rarely, a bendlet, with pendants, or points, usually three, especially used as a mark of cadency to distinguish an eldest or only son while his father is still living.

To fold; to bend and lay over or on something; as, to lap a piece of cloth.

To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating; as, she leaned out at the window; a leaning column. "He leant forward." Dickens.

d his way without his eyes; For out o'door he went without their helps, And, to the last, bended their light on me. Shak.

A border or margin; as, the limbus of the cornea. Etym: Jamaican E limba to bend, fr. E. limber (1950)]. Often performed at celebrations, such as weddings. (1950-1996)

ecclesiastical charge which a minister receives. [Eng.] He could not get a deanery, a prebend, or even a living Macaulay. Livng room, the room most used by the family.

To cut partly off and bend down; as, to lop bushes in a hedge.