Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not yielding; inflexible.
  • adjective Aloof and often antisocial; extremely reserved.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Given up to relaxation or amusement.
  • noun A relaxing; remission from a strain; temporary ease.
  • Not suffering flexure; not bending.
  • Unyielding; inflexible; firm.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not bending; not suffering flexure; not yielding to pressure; stiff; -- applied to material things.
  • adjective Unyielding in will; not subject to persuasion or influence; inflexible; resolute; -- applied to persons.
  • adjective Unyielding in nature; unchangeable; fixed; -- applied to abstract ideas.
  • adjective rare Devoted to relaxation or amusement.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective inflexible and not yielding
  • adjective very reserved, aloof and antisocial
  • verb Present participle of unbend.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective incapable of adapting or changing to meet circumstances

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word unbending.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Contronymic in the sense: unyielding vs. remove a bend.

    January 31, 2007

  • Also, when you bend a straight line, you get an L. When you unbend it, you are again bending it.

    February 1, 2007