bent vs dare

bent

noun
  • An inclination or talent. 

  • A predisposition to act or react in a particular way. 

  • The state of being curved, crooked, or inclined from a straight line; flexure; curvity. 

  • Tension; force of acting; energy; impetus. 

  • Particular direction or tendency; flexion; course. 

  • Such a subunit as a component of a barn's framing, joined to other bents by girts and summer beams. 

  • Such a subunit as a reinforcement to, or integral part of, a bridge's framing. 

  • Any of various stiff or reedy grasses. 

  • A grassy area, grassland. 

  • The old dried stalks of grasses. 

  • A declivity or slope, as of a hill. 

adj
  • Homosexual. 

  • Inaccurately aimed. 

  • Suffering from the bends. 

  • Corrupt, dishonest. 

  • Determined or insistent. 

  • Folded, dented. 

  • High from both marijuana and alcohol. 

  • leading a life of crime. 

dare

noun
  • The quality of daring; venturesomeness; boldness. 

  • A challenge to prove courage. 

  • In the game truth or dare, the choice to perform a dare set by the other players. 

  • A small fish, the dace 

  • Defiance; challenge. 

verb
  • To terrify; to daunt. 

  • To have enough courage (to do something). 

  • To have enough courage to meet or do something, go somewhere, etc.; to face up to 

  • To catch (larks) by producing terror through the use of mirrors, scarlet cloth, a hawk, etc., so that they lie still till a net is thrown over them. 

  • To defy or challenge (someone to do something) 

How often have the words bent and dare occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )