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bench

UK/ˈbɛnt͡ʃ/US/ˈbɛnt͡ʃ/
nounA22 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #2,485 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: benches

A bench is the long outdoor seat in a park where several people can sit. Wooden slats, iron ends, and often a small brass plaque.

The word covers indoor versions too, since a workbench is where a craftsman works and a laboratory bench is where experiments happen. Sport has the bench for substitutes, which is why being benched means being left out. Law keeps a formal sense, since the bench means the judges collectively, and approaching the bench means going up to speak to the judge.

Unknown · CC BY-SA 2.0

Definitions of bench

  1. 1nounbenchA long seat for more than one person.A2

    “They sat on a bench watching the ducks.”

  2. 2nounsturdyA sturdy work table, or the judges of a court.B2

    “His tools were laid out along the bench.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *bʰeg-

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *bankiz — bench

  3. Proto-West Germanic

    *banki

  4. Old English

    benċ — bench

  5. Middle English

    bench

  6. English, today

    bench

From Middle English bench, benk, bynk, from Old English benċ (“bench”), from Proto-West Germanic banki, from Proto-Germanic bankiz (“bench”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰeg-. Cognate with Scots benk, bink (“bench”), West Frisian bank (“bench”), Dutch bank (“bench”), German Bank (“bench”), Danish bænk (“bench”), Swedish bänk (“bench”), Icelandic bekkur (“bench”). a doublet of banc and banco and bank.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the City, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

bench in the wild

  • Equipment in this context refers to a supportive bench shirt or squat/deadlift suit or briefs.

    Powerlifting

  • The High Court has circuit benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Kolhapur in Maharashtra and at Porvorim in Goa.

    Bombay High Court

  • Smaller states with few cases may have circuit benches established.

    High courts of India

  • Circuit benches (known as circuit courts in some parts of the world) are temporary courts which hold proceedings for a few selected months in a year.

    High courts of India

  • The phrase "bench and bar" denotes all judges and lawyers collectively.

    Bench (law)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • benchmark