bent

• Of a object: Having been forced into a shape that is not linear. Not entirely straight. Having a bend. e.g. "The wookie is bent." As the past tense of the verb to bend e.g. "I bent my wookie."
• Of a person, in a sexual context. Not entirely straight. Having homosexual tendencies.
• Of a person, in the context of ethics: Not entirely straight. Corruptible.
• Of a person, in the context of states of consciousness: Not entirely straight. Intoxicated, especially on illegal mind-altering drugs. Twisted.

Usage:

• "Don't bother with that morse key--it's bent...".
• "Chalky fell into the bulkhead during a spot of roughers and bent his arm."

Within the Royal Navy, use of the word bent to mean homosexual is uncommon: Jack has about a million other synonyms with far more potential for expression.

Bent is also an English electronic band, mostly known for their single "Swollen" from the album "Programmed to love". The album got a fair part of attention in the revered magazines such as Q and MixMag. The style of the band is instrumental chill-out.

"Bent" is the name of the two act play written by Martin Sherman dealing with the persecution of homosexuals in Germany in the year 1934.

Max is a thirty-four year old gay man who finds himself running from his home in Berlin with his close friend Rudy. They take refuge in a camp, but are captured and thrown into a train to a concentration camp after they show too much affection for each other in front of their fellow residents. Inside the train, Max is forced to beat Rudy to his death to prove he is not involved with the man. Also inside the train is Horst, another captured queer, who tells him that he has a chance if he can only survive the train.

Once delivered to the concentration camp, Max finds himself assigned to the tediously boring and uselessbut safe job of making piles of rocks and then moving the pile, stone by stone, to the opposite side of the confinement. After some careful manipulating of the guards, Max manages to get Horst transfered to his job.

After finally exchanging a few words, Max and Horst find they long for pleasures of the flesh, but know that they will never be able to feel that once again. During their 5 minute standing break, they have sex with each other, but through words.

Horst develops a threatening cough and Max once again manages to obtain valuable medicine for him. The guards become suspicious when they notice Max has miraculously been completely healed of his (nonexistant) cough but Horst is feeling a little weak still. The captain throws Horst's cap onto the deadly electric fenceand tells him to go fetch it. Caught in a catch 22, Horst walks towards the fence but turns back at the last moment to attack the guards, but is immediately shot down and killed. The captain orders Max to dispose of his body. In a fit a depression and desperation, he retrieves Horst's jacket bearing the homosexual pink triangle symbol and walks into the electric fence.

"A shattering play of intense action written in the language of the holocaust...one of the most important political and cultural events of the last few years."
Charles Ortleb Christopher Street Magazine

Bent (?),

imp. & p. p. of Bend.

© Webster 1913.

Bent, a. & p. p.

1.

Changed by pressure so as to be no longer straight; crooked; as, a bent pin; a bent lever.

2.

Strongly inclined toward something, so as to be resolved, determined, set, etc.; -- said of the mind, character, disposition, desires, etc., and used with on; as, to be bent on going to college; he is bent on mischief.

© Webster 1913.

Bent, n. [See Bend, n. & v.]

1.

The state of being curved, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity; as, the bent of a bow.

Wilkins.

2.

A declivity or slope, as of a hill.

Dryden.

3.

A leaning or bias; proclivity; tendency of mind; inclination; disposition; purpose; aim.

Shak.

With a native bent did good pursue. Dryden.

4.

Particular direction or tendency; flexion; course.

Bents and turns of the matter. Locke.

5. Carp.

A transverse frame of a framed structure.

6.

Tension; force of acting; energy; impetus.

The full bent and stress of the soul. Norris.

Syn. -- Predilection; turn. Bent, Bias, Inclination, Prepossession. These words agree in describing a permanent influence upon the mind which tends to decide its actions. Bent denotes a fixed tendency of the mind in a given direction. It is the widest of these terms, and applies to the will, the intellect, and the affections, taken conjointly; as, the whole bent of his character was toward evil practices. Bias is literally a weight fixed on one side of a ball used in bowling, and causing it to swerve from a straight course. Used figuratively, bias applies particularly to the judgment, and denotes something which acts with a permanent force on the character through that faculty; as, the bias of early education, early habits, etc. Inclination is an excited state of desire or appetency; as, a strong inclination to the study of the law. Prepossession is a mingled state of feeling and opinion in respect to some person or subject, which has laid hold of and occupied the mind previous to inquiry. The word is commonly used in a good sense, an unfavorable impression of this kind being denominated a prejudice. "Strong minds will be strongly bent, and usually labor under a strong bias; but there is no mind so weak and powerless as not to have its inclinations, and none so guarded as to be without its prepossessions."

Crabb.

© Webster 1913.

Bent (?), n. [AS. beonet; akin to OHG. pinuz, G. binse, rush, bent grass; of unknown origin.]

1.

A reedlike grass; a stalk of stiff, coarse grass.

His spear a bent, both stiff and strong. Drayton.

2. Bot.

A grass of the genus Agrostis, esp. Agrostis vulgaris, or redtop. The name is also used of many other grasses, esp. in America.

3.

Any neglected field or broken ground; a common; a moor.

Wright.

Bowmen bickered upon the bent. Chevy Chase.

© Webster 1913.