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indent, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
indent in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Partly from Middle English indenten (“to dent in”), equivalent to in- + dent (see dent); partly from Middle English indenten, endenten, from Old French endenter (“to provide with teeth”), from en- (“in-, en-”) + dent (“tooth”), from Latin dēns.
Pronunciation
Noun
indent (plural indents)
- A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch.
- A stamp; an impression.
- A certificate, or intended certificate, issued by the government of the United States at the close of the Revolution, for the principal or interest of the public debt.
- A requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army.
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
indent (third-person singular simple present indents, present participle indenting, simple past and past participle indented)
- (transitive) To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth
to indent the edge of paper
- (intransitive) To be cut, notched, or dented.
- To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress
indent a smooth surface with a hammer
to indent wax with a stamp
- (historical) To cut the two halves of a document in duplicate, using a jagged or wavy line so that each party could demonstrate that their copy was part of the original whole.
- (intransitive, reflexive, obsolete) To enter into a binding agreement by means of such documents; to formally commit (to doing something); to contract.
- , New York, 2001, p.91:
- The Polanders indented with Henry, Duke of Anjou, their new-chosen king, to bring with him an hundred families of artificers into Poland.
1698, Robert South, Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, London: Thomas Bennet, page 28:And is this now the Person who is to oblige his Maker? to indent and drive bargains with the Almighty?
- 1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica” in Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, pp. xlii-xliii,
- he accidentally met with the commander of a trading vessel bound to Barbadoes, and being actuated by an adventurous spirit, bargained for a passage by indenting himself to serve a planter for four years after his arrival in that island.
- (transitive, obsolete) To engage (someone), originally by means of indented contracts.
to indent a young man to a shoemaker; to indent a servant
- (typography) To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or lesser distance from the margin. See indentation, and indention. Normal indent pushes in a line or paragraph. "Hanging indent" pulls the line out into the margin.
to indent the first line of a paragraph one em
to indent the second paragraph two ems more than the first
- (obsolete, intransitive) To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag.
c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Seeing Orlando, it vnlink'd it selfe,
And with indented glides, did slip away
- (military, India, dated) To make an order upon; to draw upon, as for military stores.
- 1832 May 23, John Byng examining Jasper Nicolls in the House of Commons:
- What is the rule observed in India in indenting upon England for military stores ?
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “typography”): unindent
- (antonym(s) of “typography”): outdent
- (antonym(s) of “typography”): dedent
Derived terms
Translations
to cut into points like a row of teeth
to be cut, notched, or dented
to cut the two halves of a document in duplicate
typography: to begin a line or lines at a greater or less distance from the margin
Anagrams
Latin
Verb
indent
- third-person plural future active indicative of indō