- Obs. a bend, angle, or hollow, specif. of a body structure
- a loop or slack part in a rope
- a curve in a river, coastline, etc.
- a bay formed by such a curve
Origin of bightMiddle English ; from Old English byht ; from base of bugan (see bow); akin to Dutch and amp; German bucht
- a. A loop in a rope.b. The middle or slack part of an extended rope.
- a. A bend or curve, especially in a shoreline.b. A wide bay formed by such a bend or curve.
Origin of bightMiddle English, bend, angle, from Old English byht; see bheug- in Indo-European roots.
- Bight of Benin
- Great Australian Bight
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.