flex

flex

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

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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 bow— Phil 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