bend sinister

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That in heraldry, a bend sinister indicates bastardy.

From New York Times • Dec. 19, 2019

There were several generations of them, and used for their arms those of Bonville with the addition of a bend sinister; they also became extinct.

From The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West by Rogers, William Henry Hamilton

All these families bear the arms described by your correspondent, but without the bend sinister.

From Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850 by Various

The scarpe is the diminutive of the bend sinister, and is half its size.

From The Manual of Heraldry; Fifth Edition Being a Concise Description of the Several Terms Used, and Containing a Dictionary of Every Designation in the Science by Anonymous

An ordinary with its ends cut off, borne sinister as a mark of bastardy, and containing one fourth in breadth of the bend sinister; Ð called also bastard bar.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah