Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a bout of riotous drinking, often lasting several days and including random acts of excess, violence etc; thus on a bender

1846		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune 62: I was on an almighty big bender last night, I tell you, and the way we did walk into the highly concentrated hard cider [...] worn’t slow.
1858		N.Y. Morning Express 6 Oct. 1/8: Augustus Tate [...] went on a bit of a bender Monday night.
1866		W. Hilleary diary 21 Mar. in A Webfoot Volunteer (1965) 170: Whisky flowed and green backs were ‘strowed.’ A general bender seems to be the order of the day.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 582: Bender, in the sense of a spree, a course of drinking, is the facetious name given to the arm, which becomes a bender from being so frequently bent or ‘crooked’ to lift the glass to the mouth. The word originated with the Scotch, among whom it designated the hard drinker as well as the drinking.
1877		Dodge City Times (KS) 2 June 5/3: Suppose Hayes and Morton should get on a bender and put their jewelry in soak for boose, then it would be appropriate to say they ‘got to the boose joint’ by this means.
1887		J. Hatton Old House at Sandwich I 82: The boss of Drummond’s Gulch may be said to have begun his ‘bender’, as a bout of drunken dissipation was called in these regions.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 27 July 2/2: He is going on a howling bender.
1894		G. Boothby On the Wallaby 197: ‘Gin and brandy,’ he replied; and then noting our astonishment, went on to inform us that when he had been in the ‘Royal Bender’ (Anglicè, ‘drinking bout’) ‘he always took ’em together’.
1900		Smi-wkly Interior Jrnl (Standford, KY) 9 Nov. 2/4: ‘I feel like stopping here and going on a regular bender’ — Theodore Roosevelt in an address at the beer city of Milwaukee.
1905		R. Beach Pardners (1912) 42: A thousand-dollar bender.
1911		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Jan. n.p.: They go on a roaring bender for a week or two.
1913		F. Klaeber ‘A Word-List From Minnesota’ in DN IV i 10: bender, n. A (drinking) spree. ’dan was returning from a bender this morning.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Cow’ in Backblock Ballads 36: Once I wus a sinful spender. Used ter go a roarin’ bender.
1920		Western Champion (Barcaldine, Qld) 13 Mar. 68/1: Accused said he had been on a bender but he would never drink again.
1930		K. Brush Young Man of Manhattan 186: What a bender!
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 123: He went on the bender too often, that was his main trouble.
1948		R.L. Bellem ‘Death Ends the Scene’ Hollywood Detective May 🌐 His protracted benders showed in his work; whereupon [...] his studio dropped his option and canned him off the lot.
1953		‘Curt Cannon’ ‘Die Hard’ in I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 9: That’s the beauty of a perpetual bender. You know just when you’ve had all you can hold, and you go on from there.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 8: Bender – a drinking spree.
1965		East Pakistan Police Co-operative Society Detective IX 10: Only when he is at the end of a bender and is beginning to have withdrawn symptons, does he crave more?
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 83: Come off a bender like that, always feel great.
1987		A. Rollini Big Bands 106: Whiteman had a little habit of going on a bender (getting drunk) about every three months for a couple of days.
1999		Guardian Guide 3–9 July 9: A man who has survived countless benders.
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 239: As desultory, as melancholy, as desperately forlorn, and as fatal as a debilitated drunken laugh at the end of a two-week bender.
2010		C.R. Vargo Beyond My Horizon 57: I shook so badly that the duty officer asked me if I had come off a four-week bender.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Definitely no all night benders [...] lots of booze, the occasional pill or line of coke if they were feeling particularly naughty.
2015		Indep. on Sunday 25 Oct. 🌐 There were parties, there were epic benders, and there were jollies galore.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 253: [A]n arrangement that looked right, looked natural, like a guy flopping off a bender.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 87: [B]enders being the only time that I really felt comfortable spending money on myself.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 321: ‘What was up with Dessie? [...] Why was he on a bender?’.

2. anything exceptional, astounding.

1842		H.J. Daniel Bride of Scio 190: Ma vice [= fist] es wat I kal a bendur [EDD].
1854		Putnam’s Mag. Aug. in Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (1877) 39: I led her through the festal hall, / Her glance was soft and tender; / She whispered gently in my ear, ‘Say, Mozse, ain’t this a bender?’ .
1895		Kipling Day’s Work 180: By Jove, it’s a bender of a night.
1915		Darling Jargon Bk.

3. (US) a rampage.

1870

W.W. Fowler Ten Years on Wall Street 430: The bears were on a ‘bender’ that day; the market was full of honey-combs, on which they were feasting.

4. one who poses as smarter than they are in the pursuit of hedonism.

c.1900

[perf. Vesta Tilley] Sydney’s holidays are in September 🎵 He's the bendiest of benders in his lavender suspenders / My word, he is a naughty boy.