overbend
overbend verb: to bend over.
Verb
overbend (third-person singular simple present overbends, present participle overbending, simple past and past participle overbent)
- To bend over.
- The heavens grow wonderful with purple hue, Soft, rich and deep, peace giving to mine eyes. They overbend the square , Above whose entrance fair The arch , by the Republic set , doth rise In high triumphal state;1913, Hanford Chase Judson, Songs Toward the Sunlight, page 19
- Long ranges of mountain unfold to the left, and here and there thick willows overbend the stream, where lock-tenders sit peacefully with their families before the cabin doorways.1914, George Wharton Edwards, The Forest of Arden, page 2
- To bend to excess; to bend farther than the desired or intended amount.
- If you sharpen a razor too much you will notch the edge, and if you overbend the bow, at last 'twill break .1912, Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, The Adventurous Simplicissimus, page 277
- It is more frequently used to overbend predictable small springback.1988, Orville D. Lascoe, Handbook of Fabrication Processes, page 33
- To increase the tension on a string at the fret, causing the note to sharpen.
- Try not to overbend that B flat.1962, Artie Traum, Arti Funaro, The Legends of Rock Guitar
- Try it very slowly and listen hard to the sound you make – don't 'overbend' the string as you move it as good vibrato begins with only a minor variation improvement.2010, David Mead, A Guitarist's FAQ
- To overblow or overdraw in order to create a note that is sharper; to move the point in the mouth where airflow is narrowest forward.
- Some mid-priced models respond faborably to overbending, but they work much better with reed adjustment.2009, Winslow Yerxa, Harmonica For Dummies, page 190
- It's easier to overbend on harps in lower keys than higher keys.2010, James Major, Complete 10-Hole Diatonic Harmonica Series: B Harmonica Book, page 9
Noun
overbend (plural overbends)
- The portion of a pipeline that curves downward from a higher level to the inflection point where the surface holding the upper part is no longer supporting the pipe.
- The overbend occurs mainly on the laybarge/vessel and the stinger. The setting of the rollers to obtain a radius of curvature is the main control of the overbend.2005, Boyun Guo, Shanhong Song, Ali Ghalambor, Offshore Pipelines, page 143
- To find the number of degrees in the combination bend, square the side bend and the sag or overbend; add them together and extract the square root.2015, E.W. McAllister, Pipeline Rules of Thumb Handbook, page 47
- An instance of overbending (bending too far).
- This becomes even more critical if you overbend and have to unbend in some area. It can be tricky to spot where the overbend is located.1994, Jonathan D. Solomon, William Cumpiano, Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology, page 183
- At present they are deep, indicating 'overbend,' because I am flattening the sail to a depth that is shallower than what I cut it to. In effect, you are getting two mainsails here – a flat one with overbend wrinkles , and a normal one without overbend wrinkles.1995, Tom Linskey, Race Winning Strategies: Smart Lessons with Deep Dakron, page 120
- The amount by which a material has been overbent.
- This unit features precalculation of required overbend, which Datex calls " adaptive springback compensation."1967, Product Engineering - Volume 38, page 106
- This incorporated the correct amount of overbend at each point to allow the frame to fit well after it had cooled off and sprung back .1996, Peter H. Spectre, Frame, Stem, and Keel Repair, page 29
- A note that is played sharp due to overbending.
- Figure 32 is an example of an overbend on the G string: Note how my 2nd and 1st fingers are helping the 3rd finger to bend the string , while the index finger serves the added function of pushing the other strings out of the way .1988, Helen Casabona, Basic Guitar, page 53
- It perfectly embodies the idea of a "feel solo," with its brilliant excursion, rife with crying bends, overbends, and just the right amount of space to let the notes resonate.2009, Bob Gulla, Guitar Gods: The 25 Players who Made Rock History, page 94
- A note that is played sharp due to overbending.
- The note you hear when you play an overbend seems to pop out of nowhere, with no slide up from another note.2009, Winslow Yerxa, Harmonica For Dummies, page 198
- To reach a specific overbend note you'll have to control your breath and align the shape of the inside of your mouth to coincide with the frequency of the desired note.2010, James Major, Complete 10-Hole Diatonic Harmonica Series: B Harmonica Book, page 9
Examples of overbend in a sentence
- In light air conditions be careful not to overbend the mast or you will turn the sail inside out.2000, Charles Mason, The Best of Sail Trim, page 94:
- Work carefully; you don't want to overbend the cage.2010, Todd Downs, The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance & Repair, page 232:
- Turning to a clean page I over-exaggeratingly overbend the binding for to help the notebook to lay flat.2011, Eddie Horton, Just Compass, page 127:
- However, they do require a lot of control – be careful here not to overbend and overshoot your target note.2014, James Martin, Zero Point Guitar, page 74:
Forms of overbend
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | overbends |
| present participle | overbending |
| past participle | overbent |
| past | overbent |
| Noun | |
| plural | overbends |
Origin of overbend
From over- + bend.
Questions about overbend
- What does overbend mean?
- Overbend means to bend over.
- How do you use overbend in a sentence?
- In light air conditions be careful not to overbend the mast or you will turn the sail inside out.
- What part of speech is overbend?
- Overbend can be a verb or a noun.
- What is the past tense of overbend?
- The past tense of overbend is overbent.
Words near overbend in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overbend (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “overbend.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overbend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.