indented

English

Etymology

From indent +‎ -ed.

Adjective

indented (comparative more indented, superlative most indented)

1. Cut in the edge into points or inequalities, like teeth; dented on the surface; jagged; notched; stamped in.

   Synonyms: erose, serrated; see also Thesaurus:notched

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, chapter III, in An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, part V, page 352:

     He saw the horrible form among the big trees, in the network of creepers in the fantastic outlines of leaves, of the great indented leaves that seemed to be so many enormous hands with big broad palms, with stiff fingers outspread to lay hold of him; […]

   • 1958, Graham Greene, chapter 2, in Our Man in Havana‎^[1], part 4, New York: Pocket Books, published 1974, page 143,:

     The old brown photograph with the photographer’s indented seal in the corner showed the long ranks of the cavalry […]

2. Having an irregular, uneven; sinuous; undulating.

   a heavily indented coastline

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Seeing Orlando, it [the snake] unlinked itself / And with indented glides did slip away / Into a bush; […]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 494-497:

     So spake the Enemie of Mankind, enclos'd / In Serpent, Inmate bad, and toward Eve / Address'd his way, not with indented wave, / Prone on the ground, as since, but on his reare, […]

3. (heraldry) Notched like the part of a saw consisting of the teeth; serrated.

   

   A chevron indented.

   an indented border or ordinary

4. Bound out by an indenture; apprenticed; indentured.

   an indented servant

5. (zoology) Notched along the margin with a different colour, like the feathers of some birds.

Coordinate terms

• (heraldry): dancetté

Verb

indented

1. simple past and past participle of indent

Anagrams

• detinned, intended