Word.ws English Dictionary

bends sinister

bends sinister is the plural of bend sinister.

Meaning of bend sinister

Noun

bend sinister (plural bends sinister)

  1. A diagonal band on a coat of arms going from the sinister chief (the viewer's top right) to the dexter base, sometimes erroneously held to indicate bastardy.
  2. (dated, figuratively) Bastardy, (by extension) a defect or stigma.
    • A ‘bend sinister’ ran athwart his reputation as a priest. Men muttered that he was an infidel, a blasphemous vagabond, versed in all the damnable heresies of antiquity.1904, Warwick Deeping, Love Among the Ruins, page 101

Questions about bends sinister

What is bends sinister the plural of?
Bends sinister is the plural of bend sinister.

Words near bends sinister in the dictionary

  1. bends one off
  2. bends one's elbow
  3. bends over
  4. bends over backward
  5. bends over backwards
  6. bends sinister
  7. bends someone's ear
  8. bends someone's will
  9. bends the brain
  10. bends the knee
  11. bends the rules

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bends sinister (page history and authors); bend sinister (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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