Word.ws English Dictionary

bending the rules

bending the rules is the present participle and gerund of bend the rules.

Meaning of bend the rules

Verb

bend the rules (third-person singular simple present bends the rules, present participle bending the rules, simple past and past participle bent the rules)

  1. To do something that is not normally allowed but is also not explicitly prohibited.
    • Such a mechanism could preserve individuals with mainly prosocial inclinations by enabling them to bend the rules in minor ways without suffering from guilt and without losing out in competition with free-riders.2008, Robert A. Hinde, Bending the Rules: The Flexibility of Absolutes in Modern Life, →ISBN

Questions about bending the rules

What is bending the rules the present participle and gerund of?
Bending the rules is the present participle and gerund of bend the rules.

Words near bending the rules in the dictionary

  1. bending over backwards
  2. bending someone's ear
  3. bending someone's will
  4. bending the brain
  5. bending the knee
  6. bending the rules
  7. bending the truth
  8. bending to one's will
  9. bending to someone's will
  10. bendingly
  11. bendings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bending the rules (page history and authors); bend the rules (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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