1. Not bowed or curved; also, freed from bending, straightened.
1483. Cath. Angl., 28/1. Vn Bent, laxus, relaxus.
1611. Cotgr., Desbandé, disbanded; vnbent; vnbound.
1813. Byron, Giaour, 27. His queen, the garden queen, his Rose, Unbent by winds, unchill’d by snows.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 61. These venerable giants of the forest, that have stood unbent beneath the weight of a thousand years.
b. Of a bow: Not bent; released from a bent state.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, XI. xvii. 18. [They] on thar wery schuldris wyth greit schame Thar byg bowys onbent has tursit hame.
1601. Donne, Progr. Soul, 390. Like an unbent bow, carelesly His sinewy Proboscis did remisly lie.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxii. Do not think you shall be in danger to lose the Victory over them, if you suffer your Bow sometimes to be unbent.
1728. Eliza Heywood, trans. Mme. de Gomez’s Belle A. (1732), II. 41. She had a Quiver at her Back, and an unbent Bow in her Hand.
1830–4. Whittier, Mogg Megone, 386. I only meant To draw up again the bow unbent.
2. Not wrinkled or knit.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1509. An humble gate, calme looks, eyes wayling still, A brow vnbent that seem’d to welcome wo.
3. fig. Not subdued or made subservient.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, VI. 143. Thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes.
a. 1718. Prior, Solomon, II. 554. She looks with Majesty, and moves with State: Unbent her Soul, and in Misfortune great, She scorns the World.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xxix. The high-spirited entreaties of Eveline, unbent by adversity and want, gradually lost effect on the defenders of the castle.
1845. [see UNBETTERED ppl. a.].
