bender

Meaning

Noun

• One who, or that which, bends.
• A device to aid bending of pipes to a specific angle.
• A bout of heavy drinking.
• A homosexual man.
• A simple shelter, made using flexible branches or withies.
• A suspended sentence.
• A sixpence.
• A spree, a frolic.
• Something exceptional.

Related

Similar words

• binge, spree, toot
• bender tent
• I don't think, not

Origin

• Hypotheses:
• bend + -er. In sense of “heavy drinking”, originally generally “spree”, from 1846, of uncertain origin – vague contemporary sense of “something extraordinary”, connection to bend (e.g., bending elbow to drink) or perhaps from Scottish sense of “strong drinker”.
• In Britain, for about four centuries, a sixpence was known as a bender because its silver content made it easy to bend in the hands. This was commonly done to create ‘love tokens’, many of which survive in collections to this day. The value of a sixpence was also enough to get thoroughly inebriated as taverns would often allow you to drink all day for two pence. This gave rise to the expression ‘going on a bender’.
• In the United States, Benderville is just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. There was a well known resort nearby owned by the Bender family where people from Chicago and other regional cities would vacation. The resort was very popular and people in the nearby cities began to use the term “going on a bender” to refer a weekend of fun and drinking at the resort.