flexure

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A curve, turn, or fold, such as a bend in a tubular organ: a flexure of the colon.
2. n. The act or an instance of bending or flexing; flexion.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of bending, or the state of being bent; a bending; specifically, in mech., a strain in which certain planes are deformed into cylindrical or conical surfaces. There is a so-called neutral plane which is neither stretched nor compressed. The planes parallel to it on one side are compressed; those on the other side are stretched. In geometry flexure differs from curvature only in being always non-quantitative, while curvature is sometimes used quantitatively.
2. n. The part bent; a bend; a fold.
3. n. Obsequious bowing or cringing.
4. n. In geology, the folding or bending of strata under compression.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of bending or flexing; flexion.
2. n. A turn; a bend; a fold; a curve.
3. n. anatomy A curve or bend in a tubular organ.
4. n. zoology The last joint, or bend, of the wing of a bird.
5. n. astronomy The small distortion of an astronomical instrument caused by the weight of its parts; the amount to be added or subtracted from the observed readings of the instrument to correct them for this distortion.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of flexing or bending; a turning or curving; flexion; hence, obsequious bowing or bending.
2. n. A turn; a bend; a fold; a curve.
3. n. (Zoöl.) The last joint, or bend, of the wing of a bird.
4. n. (Astron.) The small distortion of an astronomical instrument caused by the weight of its parts; the amount to be added or substracted from the observed readings of the instrument to correct them for this distortion.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. act of bending a joint; especially a joint between the bones of a limb so that the angle between them is decreased
2. n. the state of being flexed (as of a joint)
3. n. an angular or rounded shape made by folding