indent

noun indents

1. A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch.
2. A stamp; an impression.
3. A certificate, or intended certificate, issued by the government of the United States at the close of the Revolution, for the principal or interest of the public debt.
4. A requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army.

verb indents · indenting · indented

1. transitive To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth to indent the edge of paper
2. intransitive To be cut, notched, or dented.
3. To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress indent a smooth surface with a hammer
4. historical To cut the two halves of a document in duplicate, using a jagged or wavy line so that each party could demonstrate that their copy was part of the original whole.
5. intransitive, obsolete, reflexive To enter into a binding agreement by means of such documents; to formally commit (to doing something); to contract. The Polanders indented with Henry, Duke of Anjou, their new-chosen king, to bring with him an hundred families of artificers into Poland.
6. obsolete, transitive To engage (someone), originally by means of indented contracts. to indent a young man to a shoemaker; to indent a servant
7. To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or lesser distance from the margin. See indentation, and indention. Normal indent pushes in a line or paragraph. "Hanging indent" pulls the line out into the margin. to indent the first line of a paragraph one em
8. intransitive, obsolete To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag. Seeing Orlando, it vnlink'd it selfe, And with indented glides, did slip away
9. India, Singapore To make an order upon; to draw upon, as for military stores. What is the rule observed in India in indenting upon England for military stores ?

Opposite: unindent, outdent, dedent