unbending
- not bending or curving; inflexible; rigid.
- refusing to yield or compromise; resolute.
- austere or formal; aloof.
Origin of unbending
unbend
- to straighten from a bent form or position.
- to release from the strain of formality, intense effort, etc.; relax: to unbend one's mind.
- to release from tension, as a bow.
- Nautical.
- to loose or untie, as a sail or rope.
- to unfasten from spars or stays, as sails.
- to relax the strictness of formality or ceremony; act in an easy, genial manner: Imagine him unbending!
- to become unbent; straighten.
Origin of unbend
Related Words for unbending
firm, obstinate, reserved, crisp, aloof, distant, formal, hard-line, incompliant, inelastic, inexorable, inflexible, intractable, obdurate, relentless, resolute, severe, single-minded, stiff, strictExamples from the Web for unbending
Contemporary Examples of unbending
Koop, a man of the far right, was standing tall and unbending.
C. Everett Koop: Pioneering Surgeon General Spurred Reagan Response to AIDSKent Sepkowitz
February 26, 2013
Ayalon himself told me in in October 2010 that zero-enrichment is an unbending Israeli red line.
Now those positions are coming back to haunt him as Republican activists demand a candidate of unbending right-wing convictions.
Washington, unbending in his role as the noblest republican of them all, administered a severe blow to imperial pride.
Historical Examples of unbending
Her struggles met only the unbending, pitiless resistance of steel.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
Old Dibs smiled a sickly smile, like he was unbending to a pair of kids.
Wild Justice: Stories of the South SeasLloyd Osbourne
The former should be strict, authoritative, unbending; the latter should be mild and gentle.
The TeacherJacob Abbott
He had been brought up in the most unbending school of Toryism.
The Ontario High School ReaderA.E. Marty
The trees seemed rigid and unbending in the wind that caressed his face.
DivinityWilliam Morrison
unbending
- rigid or inflexible
- characterized by sternness or severityan unbending rule
unbend
- to release or be released from the restraints of formality and ceremony
- informal to relax (the mind) or (of the mind) to become relaxed
- to become or be made straightened out from an originally bent shape or position
- (tr) nautical
- to remove (a sail) from a stay, mast, yard, etc
- to untie (a rope, etc) or cast (a cable) loose