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

Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 08:35 PM
number 6 11 Jun 06 - 08:37 PM
*daylia* 11 Jun 06 - 08:40 PM
Bill D 11 Jun 06 - 08:41 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 08:42 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 08:43 PM
*daylia* 11 Jun 06 - 08:44 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 08:44 PM
number 6 11 Jun 06 - 08:44 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 08:45 PM
number 6 11 Jun 06 - 08:46 PM
bbc 11 Jun 06 - 08:49 PM
bbc 11 Jun 06 - 08:51 PM
John O'L 11 Jun 06 - 08:53 PM
Peace 11 Jun 06 - 08:55 PM
Bill D 11 Jun 06 - 08:57 PM
number 6 11 Jun 06 - 08:58 PM
Alice 11 Jun 06 - 09:01 PM
Peace 11 Jun 06 - 09:04 PM
John O'L 11 Jun 06 - 09:09 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 09:42 PM
John O'L 11 Jun 06 - 09:47 PM
Bee-dubya-ell 11 Jun 06 - 09:50 PM
John O'L 11 Jun 06 - 09:59 PM
John O'L 11 Jun 06 - 10:01 PM
Rapparee 11 Jun 06 - 10:10 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 10:13 PM
frogprince 11 Jun 06 - 10:43 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 10:56 PM
Azizi 11 Jun 06 - 11:03 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 11:11 PM
GUEST 11 Jun 06 - 11:12 PM
Little Hawk 11 Jun 06 - 11:15 PM
GUEST 11 Jun 06 - 11:19 PM
catspaw49 11 Jun 06 - 11:53 PM
Little Hawk 12 Jun 06 - 12:04 AM
Amos 12 Jun 06 - 01:10 AM
dianavan 12 Jun 06 - 03:03 AM
Nigel Parsons 12 Jun 06 - 03:36 PM
GUEST 12 Jun 06 - 04:07 PM
catspaw49 12 Jun 06 - 05:03 PM
McGrath of Harlow 12 Jun 06 - 06:18 PM
catspaw49 12 Jun 06 - 06:21 PM
Rapparee 12 Jun 06 - 06:25 PM
Don(Wyziwyg)T 12 Jun 06 - 08:40 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 12 Jun 06 - 10:15 PM
Little Hawk 12 Jun 06 - 10:31 PM
Little Hawk 12 Jun 06 - 10:43 PM
Peace 12 Jun 06 - 11:21 PM
Barry Finn 13 Jun 06 - 01:41 AM
Q (Frank Staplin) 13 Jun 06 - 03:16 AM
Little Hawk 13 Jun 06 - 11:30 AM
Peace 13 Jun 06 - 11:42 AM
Dave (the ancient mariner) 13 Jun 06 - 01:52 PM
katlaughing 13 Jun 06 - 02:04 PM
McGrath of Harlow 13 Jun 06 - 02:27 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 13 Jun 06 - 02:51 PM
McGrath of Harlow 13 Jun 06 - 05:16 PM
Little Hawk 13 Jun 06 - 05:21 PM
bobad 13 Jun 06 - 07:13 PM
Peace 13 Jun 06 - 07:15 PM
Little Hawk 13 Jun 06 - 07:29 PM
Charley Noble 13 Jun 06 - 08:16 PM
katlaughing 13 Jun 06 - 09:55 PM
Little Hawk 13 Jun 06 - 10:01 PM
frogprince 13 Jun 06 - 10:04 PM
catspaw49 13 Jun 06 - 10:44 PM
frogprince 13 Jun 06 - 11:01 PM
Little Hawk 13 Jun 06 - 11:20 PM
frogprince 13 Jun 06 - 11:50 PM
Bob the Postman 14 Jun 06 - 06:55 PM
*daylia* 14 Jun 06 - 10:28 PM
catspaw49 14 Jun 06 - 10:38 PM
Little Hawk 14 Jun 06 - 10:58 PM
Little Hawk 14 Jun 06 - 11:55 PM
Little Hawk 14 Jun 06 - 11:59 PM
Firecat 15 Jun 06 - 06:25 PM
Little Hawk 15 Jun 06 - 06:38 PM
Little Hawk 15 Jun 06 - 08:54 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 15 Jun 06 - 09:04 PM
Charley Noble 16 Jun 06 - 01:15 PM
Charley Noble 17 Jun 06 - 10:20 AM
frogprince 17 Jun 06 - 10:31 AM
JennyO 17 Jun 06 - 11:05 AM
Charley Noble 17 Jun 06 - 11:01 PM
JennyO 18 Jun 06 - 07:58 AM
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Little Hawk 19 Jun 06 - 01:50 AM
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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?


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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


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

Ask them!


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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..


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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!"


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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.


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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.


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

Jeezus! Some picture, Daylia!


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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


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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?


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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


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

Take your pick

bbc


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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


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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.


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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."


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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...


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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


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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.


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

? a sore back ?


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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.


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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.


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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!


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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.


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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?


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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?


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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."


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

Rapaire? Get bent.


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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?


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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.


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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.


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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!"


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

More likely from football.


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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.


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

You say so 'mano.


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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?


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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.


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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


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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.


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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


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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.


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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


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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?


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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


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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... ;-)


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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!


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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.


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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


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 03:16 AM

Please, Barry. In polite society (Mudcat), please use the euphemisms "Go to Hell" or "Get lost."





(he, he, he)


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 11:30 AM

Or as the British would say..."Sod off!" or "Push off!"...both lovely expressions, I think.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Peace
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 11:42 AM

Nothin' beats Fuh Cough.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 01:52 PM

There was an old expression in my part of England (Lancashire) "as bent as a fiddlers bitch" Which used to refer to a small dog sometimes dancing for a busking fiddler; I guess it means the dog was given beer to drink and usually went nuts from constant performing. I think "bent in'th head" or "get bent" means crazy.

Yours, Aye. Dave


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 02:04 PM

What a thread of elucidations!

I think have heard this expression on the BBC tv show, "Hustle" used as one of Q's postings said, i.e. crooked, illegal.

Never heard it growing up except someone getting bent out of shape...meaning pissed (US) off, upset, angry.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 02:27 PM

"Bent" as meaning crooked or illegal is pretty standard usage in England - applied for example to politicians, sportsmen, financiers who've been caught out engaged in cheating or stealing.

But that's a different usage from the one here, which I've never come across over here.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 02:51 PM

Dave, you are correct about bent = crazy, but it is just one of the slang meanings picked up by this word.

My son (a lawyer), says some lawyers refer to crooked clients as bent. This meaning, first appearing in print in 1914, has persisted. Originally used in the U. S. by criminals (Jackson and Hellyer, 1914, "Criminal Slang"), it has extended to England (examples from the OED), used in The Times, 1958: "I had known for years that certain members of the Brighton police Force were what we call bent." The first UK appearance was in the "Sunday Pictorial," 1948.

Of products- Brophy & Partridge, in their "Songs and Slang, 1914-1918, pub. 1930- "Bent, spoiled, ruined."

Of course the term has also been applied to homosexuals.

An old term for metal work, in which the materials are bent into shape, is "bent work" (not slang), 1858.

Also a carpentry term, a section of a framework of a framed building (1815).


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 05:16 PM

Then of course there's "bent" as meaning aptitude or skill. Not a meaning you come across all that often these days.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 05:21 PM

Yes. I have a bent for singing, playing guitar, and building model kits, for example. In other words, I lean strongly in favour of those activities.

"as the sapling is bent, so grows the tree"


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: bobad
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 07:13 PM

I always thought it was akin to "getting one's nose out of joint"


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Peace
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 07:15 PM

I'm from the sixties. One's nose should not be IN the joint.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 07:29 PM

Nor the other way around either. Ask Shane. He's an expert, eh?


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 08:16 PM

I've also run across the line in some song or other that "he was either broke or badly bent."

We didn't use this expression in the small public high school that I went to in Maine. We weren't that sophisticated. We had to make do with "fuck off!"

We did have a strange word that I never did figure out what it meant: "muff it!" There were "muffers" and it generally wasn't supposed to be good if one "muffed it."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 09:55 PM

Charley, I remember hearing "muffed it," too, out here in the Rocky Mtn West, but when I grew up the only time I heard "muff" was in reference to a guy going "muff-diving," i.e. performing oral sex!


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 10:01 PM

To "muff it up" means to screw up, to make a mistake...pure and simple. The expression has nothing to do with sex. The word "muff", however, can refer to female pubic hair when used in a certain context. This is another of the many cases of one word being used in several different ways.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: frogprince
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 10:04 PM

Oh, Man; for the first time in my life, I just thought of the possible implications of "Muffy" as a girl's nickname.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 10:44 PM

Lead kind of a sheltered life doncha' Froggy?

Spaw


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: frogprince
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 11:01 PM

Don't worry, I know what a muff is, and I don't need diving lessons. But with all the times I've heard a girl called muffy, and all those seasons of "Muffy the Vampire Slayer, I never once stopped and asked myself how the nickname could be used so much in apparent innocence.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 11:20 PM

Fer Chrissake! It was "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"! The only other Buffy I ever heard of other than Buffy Sainte-Marie...one of my alltime favorite folksingers.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: frogprince
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 11:50 PM

Alzheimers can be fun...anyhow, I have seen Muffy as a nickname enough times, though generally in a satirical context. Never actually watched the "Buffy" show, but can't believe I "muffed" the title.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 06:55 PM

I believe McGrath of Harlow was on the right track with his allusion to the phrase "get knotted". One of the meanings of the verb "to bend" is "to fasten"--for example, "The sailors bent a sail to the boom." "Sheet bend" and "carrick bend" are the names of knots. So the answer to the question "What does 'get bent' mean?" is, "It means exactly the same thing as 'get knotted'".
Next question: why "knotted"? Why not buttoned, zippered, velcroed, stapled, nailed, tied, glued, or fastened?
Perhaps someone with access to Partridge's Dictionary of Slang could look up "get bent" and "get knotted" and tell us which has the earlier citation.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: *daylia*
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 10:28 PM

Bent. Twisted. Toasted. Sloshed. Stoned. Plastered. Hammered. Smashed. Cooked. Fried. Wasted. Totalled.






















































Done.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 10:38 PM

awferchrissakes............Get Bent and got jackshit nothin' to do with Get Knotted except that both are another means of saying Get Fucked or in other words, both are slang insults. If you think there is some nautical relationship then you have a freakin' warped groove Man.

Let's all try not to make too much out of slang.......Like most of your sisters, its cheap, meaningless, and stinks in polite company.

Spaw...exiting with a classic "Dozens" line.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 10:58 PM

Yeah? Well, it doesn't stink half as bad as your Weimaraners do when they come back in the house after being outside on a wet day....


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 11:55 PM

Daylia? You forgot ripped, blasted, corked, scuppered, blotto, soused, face-down-in-the-gutter, three sheets to the wind, dismasted on a lee shore, shit-faced, and blind drunk (in Blind River).


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 11:59 PM

And...half in the bag! (that's Shane's favourite)


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Firecat
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 06:25 PM

I always thought it meant "Go away you complete moron". Must have been wrong.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 06:38 PM

It can mean exactly that, Firecat. That's the great thing about such expressions...they are very flexible in both meaning and interpretation.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 08:54 PM

Here's a quite similar expression that is also in common usage:

"Get stuffed!"


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 09:04 PM

The OED finds 'get knotted in print from 1963 (meaning to to Hell [or worse]). It seems to be British otiginally, but is heard on this side of the water as well. Anecdotally, get bent was heard in the 1950's, but both are possibly older. If you want to be a word sleuth and examine every book, paper or bit of ephemera to find earlier uses, go to it.

Are the dates given in the dictionaries and slang compendia useful in determining when some phrase appeared? They are temporary points of reference, sunject to correction.

Charley, yes, your meaning of 'broke' for 'bent' is also correct and has been noted by the word sleuths.

Catspaw, Sie haben Recht.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:15 PM

I wonder if the Australian slang "crook" is related to this discussion?

There's the old bush song "Wallaby Stew" which has the chorus:

So stir the wallaby stew, make soup with the kangaroo's tail,
I'll tell you things is pretty crook since Dad got put in gaol.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 10:20 AM

Hah! I figured I'd stump everyone with "crook."

Where's Bob Bolton when we needs him?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 10:31 AM

Charley, you just can't expect anyone else to even hope to try to find logic in Aussie slang! : )


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: JennyO
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 11:05 AM

..unless they happen to be an Aussie, frogprince :-)

As for the word "crook", I don't think it relates to this discussion. When a thing or a situation is crook, it means it's not going well, or it's not working properly, or it's broken. If you're feeling crook, you're feeling sick. And if you are a crook, you're a criminal.

If we want to tell someone where to go, we might say get f**ked, get knotted, get stuffed, get nicked, or just f**k off, piss off, POQ or even take a long walk off a short pier.

There's a good site of colourful Aussie expressions here:

SPEAK AUSTRALIAN


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 11:01 PM

Thanks, gentle JennyO, for the clarification,

We just got back from a bender but that's probably different from getting crooked.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: JennyO
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 07:58 AM

So you hit the turps and tied one on, didja Charlie? Downed a few stubbies of the amber fluid and now you're full as a goog?

So tomorrow if you're feeling a bit crook, ya better have some hair of the dog and chuck a sickie - just tell your boss you're in bed with the wog. And anyone who doesn't believe that can just bugger off :-)


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 10:33 AM

;~)
Charley Noble


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 01:50 AM

Har! Har! I love it, Jenny! By Gawd, I can almost believe I'm in Oz when I read that stuff. Crocodile Dundee lives again.


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Subject: RE: BS: What does 'get bent' mean...or imply?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 08:22 PM

More digression- Crook (Oz) first appeared in print in the Sidney Bulletin, 1898, acc. to the OED. It was spelled krook. By WW1, it was spelled with a 'c'.


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