Definitions

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

  • noun The act of indenting.
  • noun The condition of being indented.
  • noun The blank space between a margin and the beginning of an indented line.
  • noun A notch or jagged cut in an edge.
  • noun A recess, as in a border or coastline.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small hollow or depression; a dent or slight pit, as from a blow or from pressure; an impressed cavity: as, the indentations in a battered shield.
  • noun The act of indenting, or the state of being indented; the act of notching, or of cutting into points or inequalities like a row of teeth.
  • noun A cut or notch in a margin; a recess or depression.
  • noun In printing. See indention.

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

  • noun The act of indenting or state of being indented.
  • noun A notch or recess, in the margin or border of anything
  • noun A recess or sharp depression in any surface.
  • noun The act of beginning a line or series of lines at a little distance within the flush line of the column or page, as in the common way of beginning the first line of a paragraph.
  • noun The measure of the distance.
  • noun indentation of all the lines of a paragraph except the first, which is a full line; also called a hanging indent.

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

  • noun The act of indenting or state of being indented.
  • noun A notch or recess, in the margin or border of anything; as, the indentations of a leaf, of the coast, etc.
  • noun A recess or sharp depression in any surface.
  • noun The act of beginning a line or series of lines at a little distance within the flush line of the column or page, as in the common way of beginning the first line of a paragraph.
  • noun A measure of the distance from the flush line; as, an indentation of one em, or of two ems.

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

  • noun a concave cut into a surface or edge (as in a coastline)
  • noun the space left between the margin and the start of an indented line
  • noun the formation of small pits in a surface as a consequence of corrosion
  • noun the act of cutting into an edge with toothlike notches or angular incisions

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In the indentation is a bit of cheese and a fresh fried egg.

    Dinner Party: The Morning After tannaz 2006

  • In the indentation is a bit of cheese and a fresh fried egg.

    Archive 2006-06-01 tannaz 2006

  • A paragraph is indicated in print by what is known as the indentation of the line, that is, by commencing it a space from the left margin.

    How to Speak and Write Correctly Joseph Devlin

  • Within the indentation is a thumb side wheel which functions as an application switcher-essentially Alt+Tab on steroids attached to a thumb control.

    Daily DIY 2008

  • Now, if somebody, for example, were to put the stylus through the hole next to Al Gore's name, and then they're making up their mind whether they want to carry through with that and actually vote for him, and then decide you know what -- I'm a Democratic, but I just don't like this guy -- and they pull the stylus out, could that leave the kind of indentation you're talking about?

    CNN Transcript Dec 5, 2000 2000

  • And basically, he applied the same standard we did, and that is, if there was some kind of indentation that was consistent throughout the ballot -- didn't have to cover the whole ballot, but as long as there was enough to show a pattern that this is how the voter voted, then we would go ahead and count that as a vote.

    CNN Transcript - Larry King Live: Florida Supreme Court Grants Gore Campaign a Reprieve - December 8, 2000 2000

  • In recording the measurements of the bore in extreme proof and after service, distinguish between "indentation," which is the depression at the "seat of the shot," which is always below, and the "wear of the bore," which is generally above, and increase of bore, or

    Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance

  • This place was a kind of indentation in the side of a precipitous butte, above which the cliff (if it may be so called) arched over part way like a canopy.

    The Free Range Francis William Sullivan 1925

  • Down below, a mile, perhaps, a rocky point juts out into the river, up above another, so this forms a kind of indentation, an exclusive sort of bay for the dwellers therein, and the whole rather aristocratic settlement is put down on the railway map as Grandon Park.

    Floyd Grandon's Honor Amanda Minnie Douglas 1873

  • One window looked out on it, but the door was in a kind of indentation in it round the corner.

    Catharine Furze Mark Rutherford 1872

Comments

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  • I remember a conversation somewhere on Wordie on how to do them here. Can anyone help me?

    November 16, 2008

  • Use "& n b s p;" without the spaces or quotation marks to add one space at a time. I don't know if there's an easier way.

    November 16, 2008