Prebend
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A stipend paid to a canon of a cathedral. obsolete
- 2 the stipend assigned by a cathedral to a canon wordnet
- 3 The property or other source of this endowment. obsolete
"He is said to have added prebends to Southwell; it is more probable that he gave estates to the church which were afterwards made into separate prebends."
- 4 Political patronage employment.
- 5 A prebendary. obsolete
"c. 1593, Francis Bacon, letter to Sir Thomas Coneysby a lease of the prebend of Withington"
- 1 To bend in advance. transitive
"For large and/or dense bones compression plate fixation achieves absolute stability but the fragments have to be in contact remote to the plate by prebending the plate."
Example
More examples"He is said to have added prebends to Southwell; it is more probable that he gave estates to the church which were afterwards made into separate prebends."
Etymology
From Middle French prebende, from Medieval Latin prebenda, from Late Latin praebenda, from Latin praebendus, verbal adjective of praebere. Doublet of provender.
From pre- + bend.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.