bight
Americannoun
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the middle part of a rope, as distinguished from the ends.
-
the loop or bent part of a rope, as distinguished from the ends.
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a bend or curve in the shore of a sea or river.
-
a body of water bounded by such a bend.
-
a bay or gulf.
verb (used with object)
noun
noun
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a wide indentation of a shoreline, or the body of water bounded by such a curve
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the slack middle part of an extended rope
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a curve or loop in a rope
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bightsimple
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bightssimple
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have bightedperfect
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has bightedperfect
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am bightingprogressive
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are bightingprogressive
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is bightingprogressive
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have been bightingperfect progressive
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has been bightingperfect progressive
Past
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bightedsimple
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had bightedperfect
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was bightingprogressive
-
were bightingprogressive
-
had been bightingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bight
First recorded before 1000; Middle English byght, Old English byht “bend, bay”; cognate with Dutch bocht, German Bucht; akin to bow 1
Vocabulary lists containing bight
Australia and New Zealand - Introductory
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Australia and New Zealand - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Equinor was first granted a petroleum title over areas in the bight in 2011.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 18, 2019
Even with a young team, the Anteaters advanced to the Big West Tournament final, so the future should be bight.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 11, 2018
The shallow bight, more than a mile wide in places, runs east to west and cuts Andros roughly in half.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 14, 2015
The boardwalk weaves along the bight from the ferry terminal on Grinnell to the end of Front Street.
From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2015
I could just drift, he thought, and sleep and put a bight of line around my toe to wake me.
From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway
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The bottle was thrown overboard "somewhere in the Bight", Pte Harley's letter said, referring to the Great Australian Bight off the country's southern coast.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2025
The animals also thrive in the Cold Pool, a band of cold near-bottom water that streams through the lower regions of this section of the New York-New Jersey Bight.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2024
In Australia, marsupials abound: A snarling Tasmanian devil stands before craggy Cradle Mountain, while a stubby brown wombat surveils the Great Australian Bight.
From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2023
They were aboard a 38-foot catamaran anchored in Lookout Bight in Cape Lookout, North Carolina, stuck in choppy water with strong winds.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 23, 2023
For a distance of about five hundred miles along the Bight of Benin there is an intricate chain of waterways, which lies just at the edge of the sea.
From The World and Its People: Book VII Views in Africa by Badlam, Anna B.
The map was full of promises of the undiscovered, coves and lookout points, brooks and bights each harboring a secret second chance.
From New York Times ● Aug. 11, 2016
A "knot board," showing the various knots tied perfectly and names attached, ends of rope whipped, bights, loops and coils, is an interesting bit of work for a Troop of Girl Scouts to do.
From Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts by Bacon, Josephine Dodge Daskam
The last strand passes through two double bights.
From Knots, Bends, Splices With tables of strengths of ropes, etc. and wire rigging by Jutsum, J. Netherclift
I kan tell whi the flea bights, whi the bull bellers, and whi the rinosseross hasn’t got but one tusk, and that on the top of his knoze.
From The Complete Works of Josh Billings by Shaw, Henry W.
However, as I perceived that he had worked himself into a perfect fury, up I went, and to the topgallant-mast-head, embracing the royal pole with one arm, and standing on the bights of the rigging.
From Rattlin the Reefer by Marryat, Frederick
“You don’t want to end up with a bighted community as a result of trying to implement drastic water conservation measures,” Fraser said.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 14, 2015
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.