BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?

Subject: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:35 PM

I've been wondering about this ever since Junior High School, and that was a long time ago. People would say "Get Bent!", and I'd wonder what the hell that was supposed to mean. Seriously. Does it mean, "bend over and assume the position (sexual)" or does it refer to the mind being bent, as in a drug experience?

Does anyone know for sure? Spaw? Anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: number 6
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:37 PM

I dunno LH ... in my juniour high they said the standard "go f%$k yourself'.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: *daylia*
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:40 PM

Ask them!

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:41 PM

I dunno...maybe it has to do with "going on a bender"...meaning to get get very drunk..

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:42 PM

They said that some at my school too. They said every rude thing you can possibly imagine. "Get bent!" was among the somewhat milder abusive expressions, but it was still quite popular.

Another one which I never figured out was: "I've got nine! Have you got nine?" If you didn't have "nine", you were a nerd. I think it had something to do with sexual potency, but I'm still not sure.

Another one, culled from English class grammar lessons was, "How's your dangling element?", to which the obligatory response was, "Mine's straight up, man!"

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:43 PM

Aha! Bill D has volunteered a third possible meaning for "Get bent!". How about that? The plot thickens. I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't know what it means.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: *daylia*
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:44 PM

At my school we had dangling participles.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:44 PM

Jeezus! Some picture, Daylia!

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: number 6
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:44 PM

where the hell did you goto to juniour high LH (Ridgmont) ??

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:45 PM

In New York State. Why?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: number 6
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:46 PM

Well .. then that explains it.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: bbc
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:49 PM

Take your pick

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: bbc
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:51 PM

Here's another selection for you

also bbc

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: John O'L
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:53 PM

It's kinda like getting twisted, LH.

Ever get really twisted? It's like that.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Peace
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:55 PM

Another related expression: "He's all bent outta shape". Means he's pissed off about something.

"Get bent" where I'm from meant "Get Effed."

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:57 PM

it seems it all depends on context and emphasis...and locale...

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: number 6
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 08:58 PM

Must be ... or a diffent era.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 09:01 PM

Factory area workers in my experience would say it meaning, bend over to get ------.
Well, you asked.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Peace
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 09:04 PM

? a sore back ?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: John O'L
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 09:09 PM

I thought it meant getting stoned. Never heard it used any other way.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 09:42 PM

Well, by golly, it seems to mean absolutely anything and everything anyone wants it to. Kind of like the word "fuck" that way.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: John O'L
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 09:47 PM

Well bend me dead!

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 09:50 PM

Where I went to school it meant to get one's penis bent which, presumably, would somehow impair its functionality. Old men were thought to have erections with bends in them.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: John O'L
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 09:59 PM

You mean some people have straight erections?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: John O'L
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 10:01 PM

You mean some people have erections?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 10:10 PM

In MY high school we would never, ever, ever use such expressions! Oh sure, we might say something like "Go stand on your head and stick your elbows up your anal orifice" or "Why don't you go engage in autoreproductive activity?" or "Mictruate on you!" or even "It behooves you to grasp your external aural appendages and exert a strong pull, and when you hear a loud popping sound your head will have broken the suction which is keeping it within your rectum."

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 10:13 PM

Rapaire? Get bent.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 10:43 PM

Haven't really heard anyone use "get bent" for about a hundred years now; I'm pretty sure it did just mean "get F**ked"; I'm also pretty sure that no one I ever knew could give you any logical reason why the idiom developed. You're the first person I've ever known to think about it.
Never heard anyone say "I've got nine". My intuitive guess would be that it's a grandious claim to have "nine inches", but who knows if it's really that close to logical?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 10:56 PM

Unfortunately, frogprince, I think about and analyze everything. Absolutely everything. That seems to be my nature, and it results in my constantly being astounded and bothered by the conventional stupidities that are taken for granted by people all around me.

Aha! Nine inches! You are most likely right about that. That's amusing, because I bet there were very few among my compatriots who had nine inches. Very few. Being rather innocent at the time, I had no idea that was what it meant.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 11:03 PM

See these entries from the HipHop Dictionary

bent
1) (v) Drunk. "It doesn't matter if I'm dead sober or I'm bent" -- Heltah Skeltah (Therapy [??]).
2) (v) Sad. "You got me bent like elbows, amongst other things" -- Outkast (Aliens [???]).
http://www.anthonyvitti.com/hiphopdictionaryb.html

****

And I very vaguely remember a R&B song "I've got nine on it" or was it "five on it" or was it ...oh never mind.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 11:11 PM

It's gotta be "nine inches". Gotta be. Those young idiots I was in school with year after dreadful year were obsessed with their stupid little dangly parts...most of which looked not too impressive when showering after gym class, that's for sure.

I could never fathom it. This obsession with their penis size that most guys have. Not then. Not now. A penis is like a nose or an elbow. Every guy has one (two in the case of elbows). If it works properly, then it's okay. Other than that, who really gives a damn?

I'd like to meet them all again just once so I could say, "Hey, guys? Get bent!"

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 11:12 PM

More likely from football.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 11:15 PM

You mean like "nine yards"? No, I don't think so. I'm almost dead positive it had to do with sex. The remark was usually accompanied by a leer, and one does not leer over football.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 11:19 PM

You say so 'mano.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Jun 06 - 11:53 PM

(As Spaw resorts to ethnic humor)

Geeziz Hawk, what the hell's the matter with you? Don't you know what's white and nine inches long?.....................Nothin'.................

Yeah, that's the "9" they were referring to but another place might have used 12. Now where I grew up the smart-ass answer was, "Yeah, right.....(holds crotch)I gotcher fuckin' 9 right here Dickless. Yeah Man, I saw your ass down at Sainato's (a pharmacy) buying pinky cheaters 'cause Trojan ain't got rubbers small enough to fit your half inch prick."

Get bent was a milder epithet that you could use without getting busted for profanity but it had the general meaning of get fucked but also and often the added meaning of bend over and take it up the kazoo or from behind, making it a truly cross gender insult. Mostly of course, no one meant any of these things and they were more often used in cappin' on each other or playing the dozens.

So does that answer all your queries you fuckin' broke-dick mamalucca?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 12:04 AM

You have indeed answered my questions perceptively and accurately, Spaw, homing in on all the essential points. You're right that "get bent" was a milder epithet, but with a particularly nasty added meaning, as you say.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 01:10 AM

1. To get bent was an expression meaning to get screwed, perhaps imitative of the angle of insertion. Frequently used as an insult equivalent to "Screw you!".

2. It also means to get drunk or stoned, but in this sense it is not used as an insult.

3. It also means to suffer from accelerated expansion of compressed nitrogen and other gases in muscle fibers and body tissue, as a result of ascending too rapidly from a dive below a couple of atmospheres, roughly. Derived from "getting the bends" because the traditional form of the disease (decompression sickness) causes bubbles in the joints, and the afflicted diver is constantly bending his arms and legs to ease the discomfort.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: dianavan
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 03:03 AM

Never heard, 'get bent' (maybe its a guy thing) but have heard, 'she was really bent out of shape.'

I always thought it meant that she was upset or angry or was just generally over-reacting to something.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 03:36 PM

That 9 inches thing is, as I recall, a reference to Shakespeare. He decided that there were needed suitable coded references to the length of the male appendage.
These were categorised as follows:

6 inches: Much Ado About Nothing.

9 inches: As You Like It.

12 inches: A Midsummer Night's Dream!


CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 04:07 PM

Certainly enough to make you gag.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 05:03 PM

Ya' know Nigel, while that may be true, to the average American teenage male it is doubtful to mean anything because Shakespeare is a pain in the ass until he uses the word "cock" or they get to Oberon, King of the FAIRIES, married to TITiana.   We're not too far out of the trees over here...............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 06:18 PM

Do Americans use "get knotted" in these situations?

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 06:21 PM

Never heard it used where I've been Mac.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 06:25 PM

Nine? Like Nine Inch Nails?

We had a whole Shakespeare "quiz" we made up. I don't remember all of it, but here's some:

What's 12 inches?
As You Like It (alternately, The Taming Of the Shrew).

What's a premature ejaculation?
Love's Labors Lost.

How come your sheets are wet?
A Midsummer Night's Dream.

What would you call your Christmas date?
A Winter's Tale.

etc. It was pretty undergraduate, but then, that's what we were.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 08:40 PM

There once was a youmg man from Kent,
Whose tool was exceedingly bent,
To save himself trouble,
He folded it double,
And instead of coming, he went.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 10:15 PM

Bent (slang) has added or changed definitions through the years. The earliest recorded printing is 1833:
Greene, "Adventures of Duckworth," II, 176. "He was seldom downright drunk, but was often .... confoundedly bent."

Bringing it more into the present, this from National Lampoon, 1975:
"Hey, everybody, let's all get bent, piss ourselves, and send our shorts to China."

A definition that has persisted is: crooked, larcenous. 1914, "His Kisser shows tha he is bent." (Jackson and Hellyer, "Vocab. 17." Extended to products- Bent booze- adulterated or secretly made.

School kids aren't very imaginative. "Get bent" essentially meant 'go to Hell.'
1969, J. Bouton, "Ball Four," p. 389: In high school [ca, 1955] ""Get bent" was used to put a guy down." Still used in an article in "Playboy, 1971: "Get bent, I said."
It was used in dialogue in "The Simpsons," 1990: "Hi, Bart! Get bent!"

These and many more in J. E. Lighter, "Dictionary of American Slang," vol. 1, pp. 136-137. Also see Oxford English Dictionary.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 10:31 PM

Yeah, it's just a generally negative all-purpose put down. That's how it was used in my school, but I always wondered what people meant...or thought they meant by it. This is assuming they thought at all, which may be assuming too much, of course... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 10:43 PM

I think it is time to pay tribute once again to one of the kids who tortured me daily in school, and liked saying "Get bent!" to people. Don Hutson!

Yes, the young fool and complete asshole, Don Hutson, from 1960's Skaneateles, New York, a kid whose ears stuck out farther than Alfred E. Neumann's and whose face was uglier than Alfred's too. Don Hutson, the jerk who talked about sex incessantly, yet never succeeded in finding a girlfriend. Don Hutson, the f*ckhead who was clearly headed for a deadend job, like retrieving carts at the local grocery or pumping gas at the local gas station or maybe washing dishes at the local truck stop. Don Hutson, the idiot who made life hell for his teachers and for any kid who was small enough to bully. Don Hutson, the complete and utter degenerate who was proud of his ability to turn any word in the English dictionary into a dirty word of some kind by altering a few letters.

Don, on the tiny, tiny chance that you or anyone you know would log onto a folk & blues website after all these years I just want to say one thing to you...

Get bent!

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 11:21 PM

You try being a spoon in the hands of Uri Geller. Then, you will understand the meaning.

Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 01:41 AM

"Get bent" was a common expression where I came from (Mission Hill area of Roxbury in Boston) though it was common as inner city slang for "get fucked". Thought everyone knew that.
Barry