Bight

Pronunciation

• IPA: /baɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophones: bite, byte

Origin

From Middle English bight, biȝt, byȝt (also bought, bowght, bouȝt, see bought), from Old English byht ("bend, angle, corner; bay, bight"), 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") . Compare bought.

Full definition of bight

Noun

1. A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow; as, the bight of a horse's knee; the bight of an elbow.
• 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, ,I spied a bight of meadow some way below the roadway in an angle of the river.
2. An area of sea lying between two promontories; larger than a bay, wider than a gulf
3. A curve in a rope
• 1899, Joseph Conrad, ,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

• Bight of Benin
• Great Australian Bight