Wiktionary

bight

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English bight, biȝt, byȝt (also bought, bowght, bouȝt; see bought), from Old English byht (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhti, from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“bend, curve”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūgʰ- (“to bend”).

Cognate with Scots bicht (“bight”), Dutch bocht (“bend, curve”), Low German Bucht (“bend, bay”), German Bucht (“bay, bight”), Danish bugt (“bay”), Icelandic bugða (“curve”), Albanian butë (“soft, flabby”).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

bight (plural bights)

 
Map of Australia, showing the Great Australian Bight.
 
A bight (curve in a rope)
  1. A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow
    the bight of a horse's knee
    the bight of an elbow
  2. An area of sea lying between two promontories, larger than a bay, wider than a gulf
  3. (geography) A bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature.
  4. A curve in a rope
    • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:
      I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking.

Related terms edit

Translations edit

Verb edit

bight (third-person singular simple present bights, present participle bighting, simple past and past participle bighted)

  1. (transitive) To arrange or fasten (a rope) in bights.

See also edit

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