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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

bend to one's will en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To compel someone or something to conform to one's desires.
    • Morrison had a superfluity of gifts and, like few other writers of her era, bent language to her will. 2019 August 6, Dwight Garner, "Toni Morrison, a Writer of Many Gifts Who Bent Language to Her Will, New York Times (retrieved 23 Aug 2019)
    • Cenci: For Beatrice worse terrors are in store / To bend her to my will. Lucretia: Oh! to what will? / What cruel sufferings more than she has known / Canst thou inflict? 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci, act 4, sc. 1:
    • His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he bent her to his will. 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
bending to one's will Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
bends to one's will Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
bent to one's will Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
bent to one's will Tense=Past lexicographic

Relateds

bend someone's will · bend to someone's will