bend to one's will

English

Verb

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

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To compel someone or something to conform to one's desires.
   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci, act 4, sc. 1:

     Cenci: For Beatrice worse terrors are in store / To bend her to my will.
     Lucretia: Oh! to what will? / What cruel sufferings more than she has known / Canst thou inflict?

   • 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:

     His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he bent her to his will.

   • 2019 August 6, Dwight Garner, "Toni Morrison, a Writer of Many Gifts Who Bent Language to Her Will, New York Times (retrieved 23 Aug 2019):

     Morrison had a superfluity of gifts and, like few other writers of her era, bent language to her will.

Related terms

• bend to someone's will (intransitive)
• bend someone's will (transitive)