Unbending
adj, noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The act of one who unbends.
"He was a frequent visitor at Wimbledon where Mr. Wilberforce now resided, and the following account is given of his social unbendings."
- 1 present participle and gerund of unbend form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 inflexible and not yielding
- 2 very reserved, aloof and asocial
- 1 incapable of adapting or changing to meet circumstances wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"My worst trouble was getting away from home on the morning of starting. Mother and my sisters, of course, shed a few tears; but my father, stern and unbending in his manner, gave me his benediction in these words: "Thomas Moore, you're the third son to leave our roof, but your father's blessing goes with you. I left my own home beyond the sea before I was your age." And as they all stood at the gate, I climbed into my saddle and rode away, with a lump in my throat which left me speechless to reply."
Etymology
From un- + bending.
From unbend + -ing.
More for "unbending"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.