Indent

//ˈɪndɛnt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch.
  2. 2
    the space left between the margin and the start of an indented line wordnet
  3. 3
    A stamp; an impression.
  4. 4
    an order for goods to be exported or imported wordnet
  5. 5
    A certificate, or intended certificate, issued by the government of the United States at the close of the Revolution, for the principal or interest of the public debt.
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  1. 6
    A requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army.
Verb
  1. 1
    To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth transitive

    "to indent the edge of paper"

  2. 2
    bind by or as if by indentures, as of an apprentice or servant wordnet
  3. 3
    To be cut, notched, or dented. intransitive
  4. 4
    notch the edge of or make jagged wordnet
  5. 5
    To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress

    "indent a smooth surface with a hammer"

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  1. 6
    make a depression into wordnet
  2. 7
    To cut the two halves of a document in duplicate, using a jagged or wavy line so that each party could demonstrate that their copy was part of the original whole. historical
  3. 8
    cut or tear along an irregular line so that the parts can later be matched for authentication wordnet
  4. 9
    To enter into a binding agreement by means of such documents; to formally commit (to doing something); to contract. intransitive, obsolete, reflexive

    "The Polanders indented with Henry, Duke of Anjou, their new-chosen king, to bring with him an hundred families of artificers into Poland."

  5. 10
    set in from the margin wordnet
  6. 11
    To engage (someone), originally by means of indented contracts. obsolete, transitive

    "to indent a young man to a shoemaker; to indent a servant"

  7. 12
    To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or lesser distance from the margin. See indentation, and indention. Normal indent pushes in a line or paragraph. "Hanging indent" pulls the line out into the margin.

    "to indent the first line of a paragraph one em"

  8. 13
    To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag. intransitive, obsolete

    "Seeing Orlando, it vnlink'd it selfe, And with indented glides, did slip away"

  9. 14
    To make an order upon; to draw upon, as for military stores. India, Singapore

    "What is the rule observed in India in indenting upon England for military stores ?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
indentationindentureaccroachaddressadoptadoption

Example

More examples

"indent a smooth surface with a hammer"

Etymology

Partly from Middle English indenten (“to dent in”), equivalent to in- + dent (see dent); partly from Middle English indenten, endenten, from Old French endenter (“to provide with teeth”), from en- (“in-, en-”) + dent (“tooth”), from Latin dēns.

Related phrases

hanging indent

More for "indent"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.