different between bend vs curb

English

Etymology

From Middle English benden, from Old English bendan (“to bind or bend (a bow), fetter, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *bandijan? (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?end?- (“to bind, tie”). Cognate with Middle High German benden (“to fetter”), Danish bænde (“to bend”), Norwegian bende (“to bend”), Faroese benda (“to bend, inflect”), Icelandic benda (“to bend”). More at band.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?nd, IPA^(key): /b?nd/
• (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /b?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

bend (third-person singular simple present bends, present participle bending, simple past and past participle bent or (archaic) bended)

1. (transitive) To cause (something) to change its shape into a curve, by physical force, chemical action, or any other means.

2. (intransitive) To become curved.

3. (transitive) To cause to change direction.
4. (intransitive) To change direction.

5. (intransitive) To be inclined; to direct itself.
6. (intransitive, usually with "down") To stoop.

7. (intransitive) To bow in prayer, or in token of submission.
   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

     Each to his great Father bends.

8. (transitive) To force to submit.
9. (intransitive) To submit.

10. (transitive) To apply to a task or purpose.
11. (intransitive) To apply oneself to a task or purpose.

12. (transitive) To adapt or interpret to for a purpose or beneficiary.
13. (transitive, nautical) To tie, as in securing a line to a cleat; to shackle a chain to an anchor; make fast.

14. (transitive, music) To smoothly change the pitch of a note.

15. (intransitive, nautical) To swing the body when rowing.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

bend (plural bends)

1. A curve.
   • 1968, Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues

     I hear the train a comin'/It's rolling round the bend

2. Any of the various knots which join the ends of two lines.
3. (in the plural, medicine, underwater diving, with the) A severe condition caused by excessively quick decompression, causing bubbles of nitrogen to form in the blood; decompression sickness.

4. (heraldry) One of the honourable ordinaries formed by two diagonal lines drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base; it generally occupies a fifth part of the shield if uncharged, but if charged one third.
5. (obsolete) Turn; purpose; inclination; ends.
   • 1608, John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, Act 1, Scene 3

     Farewell, poor swain; thou art not for my bend.

6. In the leather trade, the best quality of sole leather; a butt; sometimes, half a butt cut lengthwise.
7. (mining) Hard, indurated clay; bind.
8. (nautical, in the plural) The thickest and strongest planks in a ship's sides, more generally called wales, which have the beams, knees, and futtocks bolted to them.
9. (nautical, in the plural) The frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the sides.

   the midship bends

10. (music) A glissando, or glide between one pitch and another.

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

• bent

References

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at [1]

Anagrams

• D. Neb.

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *band (“drop”). Compare Phrygian ???? (bedu, “water”), Sanskrit ?????? (bindú, “drop”), Middle Irish banna, baina (“drop”) and possibly Latin F?ns Bandusiae.

Noun

bend m

1. pond, water reservoir
2. idle or provocative words
3. servant, henchman

Related terms

• përbindësh

Northern Kurdish

Noun

bend ?

1. slave

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From benda, bende (“to bend”).

Noun

bend n (definite singular bendet, indefinite plural bend, definite plural benda)

1. a bend
2. a bent position
3. a butt on a thick rope

Participle

bend (neuter bendt, definite singular and plural bende)

1. past participle of benda and bende

Verb

bend

1. imperative of benda and bende

References

• “bend” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Norse

Participle

bend

1. inflection of bendr:
   1. strong feminine nominative singular
   2. strong neuter nominative/accusative plural

Verb

bend

1. second-person singular active imperative of benda

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English bend.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?b?d??/

Noun

bend m (plural bends)

1. (music, electric guitar) bend (change in pitch produced by bending a string)

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From English band.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bênd/

Noun

b?nd m (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. (music) band (group of musicians)

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• kerb (British) (noun, and verb senses 3, 4 and 5 only)

Etymology

From Middle French courbe (“curve, curved object”), from Latin curvus (“bent, crooked, curved”). Doublet of curve.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?b/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??b/
• Rhymes: -??(?)b
• Homophone: kerb

Noun

curb (plural curbs)

1. (American spelling, Canadian spelling) A concrete margin along the edge of a road; a kerb (UK, Australia, New Zealand)
2. A raised margin along the edge of something, such as a well or the eye of a dome, as a strengthening.
3. Something that checks or restrains; a restraint.
   • 1641, John Denham, The Sophy

     Even by these Men, Religion, that should be / The Curb, is made the Spur to Tyranny.
4. A riding or driving bit for a horse that has rein action which amplifies the pressure in the mouth by leverage advantage placing pressure on the poll via the crown piece of the bridle and chin groove via a curb chain.
   • 1605, Michael Drayton, The Fourth Eclogue

     He that before ran in the pastures wild / Felt the stiff curb controul his angry jaws.

5. (Canada, US) A sidewalk, covered or partially enclosed, bordering the airport terminal road system with adjacent paved areas to permit vehicles to off-load or load passengers.
6. A swelling on the back part of the hind leg of a horse, just behind the lowest part of the hock joint, generally causing lameness.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

curb (third-person singular simple present curbs, present participle curbing, simple past and past participle curbed)

1. (transitive) To check, restrain or control.
   • 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon on the Vanity of the World

     Where pinching want must curb her warm desires.
2. (transitive) To rein in.
3. (transitive) To furnish with a curb, as a well; to restrain by a curb, as a bank of earth.
4. (transitive, slang) Ellipsis of curb stomp.
5. (transitive) To bring to a stop beside a curb.
6. (transitive) To damage vehicle wheels or tires by running into or over a pavement curb.
7. (transitive) To bend or curve.
   • 1603, Philemon Holland (translator), The Philosophie, commonly called, the Morals (originally by Plutarch)

     crooked and curbed lines

8. (intransitive) To crouch; to cringe.

Synonyms

• (check, restrain, control): behedge, curtail, limit; See also Thesaurus:curb
• (rein in):
• (furnish with a curb):
• (force to hit the curb): curb stomp
• (damage wheels on a curb):
• (bend or curve): bow, flex, incurvate; See also Thesaurus:bend
• (crouch or cringe): bend, fawn, stoop

Translations

Related terms

• curvaceous
• curvature
• curve
• curvy

Further reading

• curb in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• curb in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• curb at OneLook Dictionary Search

Romanian

Etymology

From French courbe.

Adjective

curb m or n (feminine singular curb?, masculine plural curbi, feminine and neuter plural curbe)

1. curve

Declension