bend someone's will

English

Verb

bend someone's will (third-person singular simple present bends someone's will, present participle bending someone's will, simple past and past participle bent someone's will)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To persuade or otherwise induce someone to change his or her views or to choose a different course of action.
   • 1882, Charlotte M. Yonge, History of France, ch. 5: The Wars of Religion:

     [W]hen Catherine tried to draw him to court by proposing a marriage between him and her youngest daughter Margaret, Jeanne left him at home, and went herself to court. Catherine tried in vain to bend her will.

   • 1912, Zane Grey, chapter 20, in Riders of the Purple Sage:

     [E]ven her love could not avail to bend his will. As if the hold of her arms was that of a child's he loosened it and stepped away.

   • 2005 January 23, Simon Turnbull, "Carry on Shearer: Given's plea to captain, Independent (UK)(retrieved 23 Aug 2019):

     Despite Shearer's insistence that he intends to hang up his scoring boots at the end of the season, Souness has pledged to keep pestering him to change his mind. Whether the Iron Laddie is for turning remains to be seen, but the pressure to bend his will is being applied from within the Newcastle dressing-room as well as from the manager's office.

Related terms

• bend to someone's will (intransitive)
• bend (someone or something) to one's will (transitive)