bend sinister

plural bends sinister

1. governmentA diagonal band on a coat of arms going from the sinister chief (the viewer's top right) to the dexter base, sometimes erroneously held to indicate bastardy.
2. datedfigurativelyBastardy, (by extension) a defect or stigma.

   Rumour credited his family tree with both a 50 per cent. Jewish strain and a bend sinister.

   1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 105

   2 more examples

   A ‘bend sinister’ ran athwart his reputation as a priest. Men muttered that he was an infidel, a blasphemous vagabond, versed in all the damnable heresies of antiquity.

   1904, Warwick Deeping, Love Among the Ruins, page 101

   “I am a gentleman,” he began slowly, his back still turned, and his fingers moving busily. “Or rather, the blood of a gentleman flows through my veins.” […] “A bend sinister. Poor lad!”

   2021, J. S. Emery, A Clockwork River, →ISBN