flex

flex
flex
{

vb Flex, crook, bow, buckle mean to bend, but because of special implications and applications they are not freely interchangeable.}}

}
Flex is used chiefly of the bending of a bodily joint especially between bones of a limb by which the angle between the bones is diminished, or it may apply to the contraction of muscles by which the bending is accomplished; in either case the word is usually opposed to extend (flex the arm at the elbow)
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flex the leg at the hip joint

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he has grown so old and stiff that he cannot easily flex his knees

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{

the world . . . would jeer at any eccentric who should flex his mental muscles in public— Barzun

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Crook may replace flex
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the air was so full of rheumatism that no man could crook his arm to write a sermon— Blackmore

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{

John, snickering, crooked his wicked thumb— Browning

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but it is also used to convey an implication of circuitousness and hence of contortion or distortion
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God knows, my son, by what bypaths and indirect crook'd ways I met this crown— Shak.

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{

forward then, but still remember how the course of time will swerve, crook and turn upon itself in many a backward streaming curve— Tennyson

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Bow (see also YIELD) may denote to bend as in reverence or submission
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at the name of Jesus every knee should bowPhil 2:10

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but it often means explicitly to incline downward the head and usually the part of the body above the waist, especially as a gesture of greeting, of recognition, or of reverence
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bow pleasantly to acquaintances

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bow reverently before a shrine

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{

grasses that now were swaying and bowing like living things in happy dance— Idriess

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In a related use bow retains some suggestion of submission and implies a bending under something (as a heavy weight) that wears or oppresses
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trees bowed down with ice

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an old man bowed with years

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Buckle implies a bending under stress (as from undue pressure, weight, heat, or fright) that loosens or weakens what supports and that brings on collapse, often to the point of permanent distortion
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noticed the buckling of the girder of the bridge

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{

the freight train buckled as it left the track and fell over the embankment

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{

the wall buckled under the heat of the fire

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{

his knees buckled and he fell down on the floor— Chandler

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{

the bulkhead had buckled; he had actually seen it coming forward— Crofts

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Analogous words: bend, *curve, twist
Antonyms: extend

New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.

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  • Flex — Flex, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Flexed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Flexing}.] [L. flexus, p. p. of flectere to bend, perh. flectere and akin to falx sickle, E. falchion. Cf. {Flinch}.] To bend; as, to flex the arm. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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  • flex|or — «FLEHK suhr, sr», noun. any muscle that when contracted bends a joint of the body. ╂[< New Latin flexor < Latin flexus; see etym. under flex (Cf. ↑flex)] …   Useful english dictionary

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