as in curved
marked by a long series of irregular curves
the river takes a long bending path to the sea
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in arching
to cause to turn away from a straight line
she bent the blade of the knife when she got it jammed in the drawer
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in devoting
to occupy (oneself) diligently or with close attention
bent herself to the task for the rest of the day
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in aiming
to point or turn (something) toward a target or goal
bent all of his efforts toward making his first documentary film
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4
as in curving
to turn away from a straight line or course
the stream bends slightly to the east
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
5
as in distorting
to change so much as to create a wrong impression or alter the meaning of
attorneys bending the facts to put their client in the most favorable light
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
6
as in attaching
to cause (something) to hold to another
bend a leash to the dog's collar
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of bending
Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 13 May 2026
The galaxy's red and orange spiral arms bending outward can measure tens or even hundreds of light-years across.
—Chelsea Gohd, Space.com, 13 May 2026
Anne seemed utterly charmed by the gesture, bending down to hold Vegas' front paws with a smile.
—Meredith Kile, PEOPLE, 12 May 2026
Cassie’s OnlyFans journey begins with her making content posing as a dog, replete with dog ears, collar, leash, wrist cuffs, tail, and a satin corset from Sweeney’s lingerie line SYRN, bending over and lapping up water from a bowl on the ground.
—Marlow Stern, Variety, 10 May 2026
These appear when the intense, unresolved light from the AGN interacts with the geometry of Webb’s hexagonal mirror segments and the support struts of its secondary mirror, slightly bending the light and creating the characteristic pattern.
—Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 10 May 2026
Doué picked up a pass on the left side of the penalty area and skipped past three players before bending a fine shot into the bottom right corner in the 83rd minute of a mostly dull contest.
—ABC News, 10 May 2026
This helps so that people aren’t bending.
—Amy Kunst, Sacbee.com, 7 May 2026
The only way to subdue the dizziness may be to let go of the big ideas—nation, nature, arcs of history bending toward justice, and so on.
—Sebastian Smee, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
Verb
If something about the now-problematic gender-bending killer of Camp Miasma reminds you of 1983’s Sleepaway Camp, Schoenbrun is not coy about the parallel.
—Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 13 May 2026
The galaxy's red and orange spiral arms bending outward can measure tens or even hundreds of light-years across.
—Chelsea Gohd, Space.com, 13 May 2026
Anne seemed utterly charmed by the gesture, bending down to hold Vegas' front paws with a smile.
—Meredith Kile, PEOPLE, 12 May 2026
Cassie’s OnlyFans journey begins with her making content posing as a dog, replete with dog ears, collar, leash, wrist cuffs, tail, and a satin corset from Sweeney’s lingerie line SYRN, bending over and lapping up water from a bowl on the ground.
—Marlow Stern, Variety, 10 May 2026
These appear when the intense, unresolved light from the AGN interacts with the geometry of Webb’s hexagonal mirror segments and the support struts of its secondary mirror, slightly bending the light and creating the characteristic pattern.
—Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 10 May 2026
Doué picked up a pass on the left side of the penalty area and skipped past three players before bending a fine shot into the bottom right corner in the 83rd minute of a mostly dull contest.
—ABC News, 10 May 2026
This helps so that people aren’t bending.
—Amy Kunst, Sacbee.com, 7 May 2026
The only way to subdue the dizziness may be to let go of the big ideas—nation, nature, arcs of history bending toward justice, and so on.
—Sebastian Smee, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bending
Adjective
-
Triangles in the Sky Carl Friedrich Gauss, a German astronomer who lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s, was one of the first mathematicians to study geometry in curved spaces.—
Manon Bischoff,
Scientific American,
23 May 2026
-
Far below the most abstract undulating curved frozen shapes where the weight of the sea ice has forged the shoreline into a white sculpture park.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
21 May 2026
Verb
-
With gracefully arching foliage, daylilies add texture and movement to garden borders and pathways.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
19 May 2026
-
Flow between arching and rounding your back to improve spinal mobility.—
Christopher Bergland,
Verywell Health,
11 May 2026
Verb
-
In his junior year, Jeffries, who majored in political science, began devoting the bulk of his extracurricular energies to the university’s Black Student Union.—
Jason Zengerle,
New Yorker,
18 May 2026
-
Annie’s mother moved the agency out in 2013 and Annie took the front room as her own bedroom and living room, devoting the rest of the apartment to the growing dog-training business.—
Anne Kadet,
Curbed,
15 May 2026
Verb
-
Simmons uses his inside right hand to punch, aiming for the V of the defender’s neck while keeping his outside left hand firm to gauge where the rusher is looking to go.—
PJ Green
May 23,
Kansas City Star,
23 May 2026
-
But a pandemic-era program is helping to keep it afloat as inflation worsens, while also aiming to create a new generation of seafood lovers.—
Joe Hernandez,
NPR,
23 May 2026
Verb
-
Mutable clay offers a contrast to precise silver, in a composition that has the curving voids reminiscent of Joan Lurie and Henry Moore.—
Anthony Paletta,
Curbed,
17 May 2026
-
High up on the curving walls to either side were large murals painted in the 1930s by the artist Barry Faulkner portraying Thomas Jefferson handing the Declaration to John Hancock and the ratification of the Constitution.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 May 2026
Verb
-
In a forthcoming paper, Miran will argue along with two Fed economists that recent software inflation has been artificially inflated by technical factors, distorting headline and core numbers.—
Matt Peterson,Steve Liesman,
CNBC,
15 May 2026
-
These developments do not rise to a level where AI can be said to be distorting the economy.—
Phillip Molnar,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
13 May 2026
Verb
-
The trailer shows an ambulance racing away from Diddly Squat Farm, followed by cell-phone footage of a nurse attaching probes to Clarkson’s chest in a hospital bed as a machine beeps in the background.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
18 May 2026
-
Designed as a complete portable signal path rather than a basic adapter, the MD3 has dual USB-C ports for attaching to a smartphone and charging at the same time.—
Mark Sparrow,
Forbes.com,
17 May 2026
Verb
-
Guys hooking drives into the next county.—
Zach Dean OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
14 May 2026
-
While hooking paying customers remains a challenge for most of the AI industry, Grok stands out as a particularly terrible performer.—
Joe Wilkins,
Futurism,
14 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bending.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bending. Accessed 24 May. 2026.
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