Citations:bench press

Noun: (weightlifting) an exercise performed by pressing the weight of a barbell away from one's body

 * 1974, Charles Gaines & George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, page 18.
 * ...Nubret has pushed and pulled maniacally at iron while sustaining a diet that would explode an ordinary metabolism—doing for that renowned chest, for instance, forty sets of twenty benchpresses (pushing 210 pounds off his chest a total of eight hundred times every other day)
 * 2006, James Stoppani, Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength, page 149
 * To many people, strength is all about the bench press. Rarely does a heavily muscled athlete field the question “How much can you squat?”
 * 2010, Adam Garett, "Fried Hams", Reps! 17:23
 * You'd never dream of doing just bench presses to build a massive chest, or only lateral raises to build up your shoulders, so you'll surely limit your overall leg development if you restrict your hamstring training to leg curls.

Verb: (weightlifting) to press the weight of a barbell away from one's body while lying on a bench

 * 1988, Frederick C. Hatfield, "Powersource: Ties that bind", Ironman 47 (6): 21.
 * I went home and bench pressed 30 pounds more than I had ever done before.
 * 2006, James Stoppani, Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength, page 149
 * The question everyone wants to know is "How much can you bench-press?"