Tent

Pronunciation

• enPR: tÄ•nt, IPA: /tent/
• Rhymes: -É›nt

Middle English tente (""), from Old French tente (""), from Latin tenta ("tent"), feminine of tentus (""), ptp. of tendere ("to stretch, extend"). Displaced native Middle English tild, tilt ("tent, tilt"), from Old English teld ("tent").

Full definition of tent

Noun

1. A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering persons from the weather.
2. (archaic) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive) To go camping.We’ll be tented at the campground this weekend.
2. (cooking) To prop up aluminum foil in an inverted "V" (reminiscent of a pop-up tent) over food to reduce splatter, before putting it in the oven.
3. (intransitive) To form into a tent-like shape.The sheet tented over his midsection.

Middle English tent ("attention"), aphetic variation of attent ("attention"), from Old French atente ("attention, intention"), from Latin attenta (""), feminine of attentus (""), past participle of attendere ("to attend").

Verb

1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) To attend to; to heed; hence, to guard; to hinder.

Noun

1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) Attention; regard, care.
2. (archaic) Intention; design.

Middle English tente ("a probe"), from Middle French tente (""), deverbal of tenter (""), from Latin tentāre ("to probe, test"), alteration of temptāre ("to test, probe, tempt").

Noun

1. (medicine) A roll of lint or linen, or a conical or cylindrical piece of sponge or other absorbent, used chiefly to dilate a natural canal, to keep open the orifice of a wound, or to absorb discharges.
2. (medicine) A probe for searching a wound.

Verb

1. (medicine, sometimes figurative) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.to tent a wound
• ShakespeareI'll tent him to the quick.

Spanish tinto ("deep-colored"), from Latin tinctus (""), past participle of tingo ("to dye"). More at tinge, tint, tinto.

Noun

1. (archaic) A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain; called also tent wine, and tinta.

Anagrams

• nett