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BENT
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BENT. 1. (From " to bend "), primarily the result of bending; hence any inclination from the straight, as in curved objects like a hook or a bow; this survives in the modern phrase " to follow one's own bent," i.e. to pursue a certain course in a direction deviating from the normal, as also in such phrases as Chaucer's " Downward on a hill under a bent," indicating a hollow or declivity in the general configuration of the land. From the bending of a bow comes the idea of tension, as in Hamlet, " they fool me to the top of my bent," i.e. to the utmost of my capacity. 2. (From the O. Eng. beonet, a coarse, rushy grass growing in wet places; cf. the Ger. Binse, a reed), the name (" bent " or " bennet ") popularly applied to several kinds of grass and surviving in the form " bent-grass."