bentwood

American  

[bent-wood] / ˈbɛntˌwʊd /

noun

1. wood steamed and bent for use in furniture.

2. an article of furniture made of bentwood.

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adjective

1. of or relating to furniture made principally of pieces of wood of circular or oval section, steamed, bent, and screwed together.

   a bentwood rocking chair.

bentwood British  

/ ˈbɛntˌwʊd /

noun

1. 1. wood bent in moulds after being heated by steaming, used mainly for furniture

   2. ( as modifier )

      a bentwood chair

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Etymology

Origin of bentwood

First recorded in 1860–65; bent ¹ + wood ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bentwood

By merging then and now, it plunges visitors into a milieu they may know only through a Shaker bentwood box, and it signals that this exhibition aims to explore the relevance of Shaker ideas today.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

In the more than 150 years since, some 50 million Thonet bentwood chairs have been produced.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2021

An excuse to sidle a sleek mid-century piece right up next to a bentwood beauty and a chipped farmhouse bench?

From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2021

Haida artist and weaver Evelyn Vanderhoop remembered when Holm sought instruction in the details of how spruce roots were gathered and prepared to seam the edge of a bentwood box.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 24, 2020

It was the same technique that the Coast Salish peoples of the Northwest had used for centuries to fashion bentwood boxes out of single planks of cedar.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown