Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A bend is a general term for a knot used to tie two ropes together. A bend is also a term in heraldry. It refers to a colored band that runs from the upper right (as seen by the viewer) corner of the shield to the lower left, covering approximately one-fifth the width of the shield. A bend sinister is a bend which runs from the upper left (as seen by the viewer) corner of the shield to the lower right. The diminutive (the name of the charge if it is smaller) of the bend is the bendlet and the diminutive of the bend sinister is the bendlet sinister. In bend refers to the appearance of several items on the shield being lined up in the direction of a bend. For example, if three or four of a particular item were lined up so as to run from the upper right to the lower left. A charge bendwise is slanted like a bend. (When a charge is placed on a bend, by default it is bendwise.) A shield party per bend is divided into two parts by a single line which runs from the upper right to the lower left. The equivalent terms can be constructed for bends sinister. If you dive, see bends. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.