Indent

From Old French endenter, from Latin indentare

Full definition of indent

(plural indents)

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

(transitive) To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth; as, to indent the edge of paper.
(intransitive) To be cut, notched, or dented.
To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress; as, indent a smooth surface with a hammer; to indent wax with a stamp.
(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.
(intransitive, obsolete) To enter into a binding agreement by means of such documents; to formally commit (to doing something); to contract.

1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 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.
Southto indent and drive bargains with the Almighty

(transitive, obsolete) To engage (someone), originally by means of indented contracts.to indent a young man to a shoemaker; to indent a servant
(typography) To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or lesser distance from the margin; as, to indent the first line of a paragraph one em; to indent the second paragraph two ems more than the first. See indentation, and indention. Normal indent pushes in a line or paragraph. "hanging indent" pulls the line out into the margin.
(obsolete, intransitive) To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag.
(military, India, dated) To make an order upon; to draw upon, as for military stores.