Indent

/ˈɪndɛnt/ · noun

Meaning

A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch..

Definitions by Sense

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.
5. (transitive) To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth
6. (intransitive) To be cut, notched, or dented.
7. To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress
8. (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.

Example Sentences

to indent the edge of paper

indent a smooth surface with a hammer

to indent wax with a stamp

The Polanders indented with Henry, Duke of Anjou, their new-chosen king, to bring with him an hundred families of artificers into Poland.

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, […] 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.

And is this now the Person who is to oblige his Maker? to indent and drive bargains with the Almighty?

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

to indent the first line of a paragraph one em

Synonyms for indent

Antonyms for indent

Related Words

Word Forms

• indents
• indenting
• indented

Usage Notes

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