Bend

Bend. This is one of the honourable ordinaries in heraldry, and is formed by two diagonal lines drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base. If it be charged with any other figure or figures the bend occupies a third part of the field, but if it be plain it is reduced in size to one-fifth. The bend-sinister is the same ordinary, but starting in this case from the sinister chief. It is more frequently known as the bar-sinister (q.v.). A field equally divided by a diagonal line from the dexter chief to the sinister base is blazoned as "party per bend," and, should it be reversed, it is then known as "party per bend-sinister," but such a coat has none of the opprobrium of illegitimacy attaching to it. A field divided by diagonal lines into four, six, eight, or more pieces, is described as bendy.