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Glite Dictionary
knee bend

knee bend

1 3.3
An exercise where you bend your knees to lower and raise your body to make your leg muscles stronger
  • noun
  • /niː bɛnd/
translation icon : sentadilla
  • A squat variation is as follows: spread the legs, point your toes outward so you're standing like a penguin, the descent on this is just a knee bend, go down in 3-4 seconds, but as you come back up, really think about using your inner thighs to lock out.
  • deep knee bends

But then with feet about, I don't know if foot or two away from, from that bar, you can do a knee bend and, and basically the arms go back behind you.

Examples

  • I had the body of a dancer, and my knees made no sound when I went down, my back perfectly straight, my stomach flat, doing my deep knee bends before preparing to dive, in the nude, with a knife clenched in my teeth.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • As part of the exercise routine, she included several sets of knee bends to strengthen her thighs and calves.

  • I was breathing for a while, and then I was imagining I was doing knee bends.

    Blog text (31)

  • But then with feet about, I don't know if foot or two away from, from that bar, you can do a knee bend and, and basically the arms go back behind you.

    Andrew Huberman

  • Mead did knee bends and jumping jacks to loosen his ankle and his leg.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Before starting the workout, the trainer instructed everyone to perform a few knee bends to warm up their leg muscles.

  • During the fitness class, he struggled to complete the knee bends as they worked to enhance their strength and flexibility.

Synonyms

squat
vsknee bend
53 2.5

An exercise where you bend your knees, lower your body, then stand up

is repeated leg bends that raise and lower body to build strength
squatting
vsknee bend
1 2.7

An exercise in which a person bends their knees to lower and raise the body to build leg strength

is repeated leg bends that raise and lower body to build strength

How Hard

weight
139 1.0
to jump
∞ 1.0
knee bend
1 3.3

Surface Forms

knee bend singular
knee bends plural

Morphology

knee + bend

The noun phrase 'knee bend' is directly compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'knee' and 'bend' can infer it refers to bending the knees (often as an exercise). The concept is cross-linguistically common and follows a straightforward noun + action pattern, so the meaning is immediately derivable from the constituents.

Etymology

Knee bend is a simple exercise that comes from the picture of bending your knee to lower and raise your body. That's why the name links knee and bend and now means 'an exercise to strengthen the legs'.