A Quick and Simple Dictionary

indent

1. Noun.  A cut or notch in the margin of anything, or a recess like a notch.
2. Noun.  A stamp; an impression.
3. Noun.  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. Noun.  A requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army.
5. Verb.  (transitive) To notch; to jag; to cut into points like a row of teeth; as, to indent the edge of paper.
6. Verb.  (intransitive) To be cut, notched, or dented.
7. Verb.  To dent; to stamp or to press in; to impress; as, indent a smooth surface with a hammer; to indent wax with a stamp.
8. Verb.  (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.
9. Verb.  (intransitive, obsolete) To enter into a binding agreement by means of such documents; to formally commit (to doing something).
10. Verb.  (transitive, obsolete) To engage (someone), originally by means of indented contracts.
11. Verb.  (context, typography) To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or less distance from the margin; as, to indent the first line of a paragraph one em; to indent the second paragraph two ems more than the first. See indentation, and indention. Normal indent pushes in a line or paragraph. "hanging indent" pulls the line out into the margin. .
12. Verb.  (obsolete, intransitive) To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag.