indent: difference between revisions

English

Etymology

Partly from Middle English indenten (“to dent in”), equivalent to in- +‎ dent (see dent); partly from Middle English indenten, endenten, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French endenter (“to provide with teeth”), from en- (“in-, en-”) + dent (“tooth”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dēns.

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈɪndɛnt/, /ɪnˈdɛnt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈdɛnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

indent (plural indents)

1. A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch.
2. A stamp; an impression.
3. 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.
4. A requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army.

Translations

A cut or notch

• Bulgarian: назъбване (bg) n (nazǎbvane), зъбец (bg) m (zǎbec)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

A stamp; an impression

• Bulgarian: вдлъбнатина (bg) f (vdlǎbnatina), отпечатък (bg) m (otpečatǎk)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Slovak: odtlačok, stopa, preliačina

Verb

indent (third-person singular simple present indents, present participle indenting, simple past and past participle indented)

1. (transitive) To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth

   to indent the edge of paper

2. (intransitive) To be cut, notched, or dented.
3. To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress

   indent a smooth surface with a hammer

   to indent wax with a stamp

4. (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.
5. (intransitive, reflexive, obsolete) To enter into a binding agreement by means of such documents; to formally commit (to doing something); to contract.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , 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, p. 28,^[1]

     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,^[2]

     […] he accidentally met with the commander of a trading vessel bound to Barbadoes, and being actuated by an adventurous spirit, [he] bargained for a passage by indenting himself to serve a planter for four years after his arrival in that island.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To engage (someone), originally by means of indented contracts.

   to indent a young man to a shoemaker; to indent a servant

7. (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

8. (obsolete, intransitive) To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag.
   • Template:RQ:Shakespeare AYLI
9. (military, India, dated) To make an order upon; to draw upon, as for military stores.

   King Dasharatha requests the Sages to conduct the Vedic ritual for which the sages indent paraphernalia, which the ministers are ordered to supply forthwith Ramayana.(Can we date this quote by Ramayana and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

Antonyms

• unindent
• outdent

Derived terms

• hanging indent

Translations

to cut into points like a row of teeth

• Bulgarian: назъбвам (bg) (nazǎbvam)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: hammastaa

to be cut, notched, or dented

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to stamp or to press in

• Bulgarian: отпечатвам (bg) (otpečatvam), правя вдлъбнатина (pravja vdlǎbnatina)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: kolota, leimata (fi)
• Slovak: preliačiť, preliačovať, vyraziť, raziť, vyhĺbiť, hĺbiť

to cut the two halves of a document in duplicate

• Finnish: leikata kahtia
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to formally commit to doing something

• Finnish: tehdä sopimus, sitoutua (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to engage someone

• Finnish: tehdä oppisopimus (in apprenticeship); palkata (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

typography: to begin a line or lines at a greater or less distance from the margin

• Bulgarian: правя абзац (pravja abzac)
• Catalan: sagnar (ca) m
• Czech: odsadit
• Dutch: inspringen (nl)
• Finnish: sisentää (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: einrücken (de)
• Maori: neke
• Portuguese: indentar (pt)
• Slovak: odsadiť, odsadzovať
• Spanish: sangrar (es)

Anagrams

• Dinnet, dentin, dinnet, intend, tinned

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) indent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of indō