Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A portable shelter made of fabric or other material stretched over a supporting framework of poles and usually stabilized or secured to the ground with cords and stakes.
  • noun Something resembling such a portable shelter in construction or outline.
  • intransitive verb To camp in a tent.
  • intransitive verb To form a tent over.
  • intransitive verb To supply with or put up in tents.
  • noun A small cylindrical plug of lint or gauze used to keep open or probe a wound or an orifice.
  • transitive verb To keep (a wound or orifice) open with such a plug.
  • transitive verb To pay heed to.
  • transitive verb To attend; wait on.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To pitch one's tent; live in or as in a tent.
  • To try; test.
  • To probe; sound.
  • To apply a tent or pledget to; keep open with a tent.
  • To tempt. See tempt.
  • noun A covering or shelter, or a portable lodge, made of some flexible material, as skins, coarse cloth, or canvas, supported by one or more poles, and stretched by means of cords secured to tent-pegs, or in some other way.
  • noun A habitation; a dwelling.
  • noun A. raised wooden box or platform set up in the open air, from which clergymen formerly used to preach when the hearers were too numerous to be accommodated within doors: still sometimes used.
  • noun An apparatus used in field-photography as a substitute for the dark room.
  • noun A probe.
  • noun In surgery, a piece of some fabric, bunch of horsehairs or threads, or small cylinder of sponge, laminaria, or other substance introduced into some opening, either natural (as the cervical canal of the uterus) or artificial (as a wound), to keep it open or increase its caliber.
  • To stretch, as cloth.
  • noun Heed; care; notice; attention: usually in the phrase to take tent.
  • noun Intent; purpose.
  • To take heed; be careful: generally with to.
  • To observe; take note of; give heed to.
  • To attend; tend upon; take care of.
  • noun The web of a colony of tent-caterpillars.
  • noun A tent-shaped cover.
  • noun A kind of wine of a deep-red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain, much used as a sacramental wine. Also tent-wine.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot. Attention; regard, care.
  • noun Prov. Eng. Intention; design.
  • noun A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain; -- called also tent wine, and tinta.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. & Scot. To attend to; to heed; hence, to guard; to hinder.
  • transitive verb To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent. Used also figuratively.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A probe for searching a wound.
  • intransitive verb To lodge as a tent; to tabernacle.
  • noun 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, especially soldiers in camp.
  • noun (Her.) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.
  • noun a high-post bedstead curtained with a tentlike canopy.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of gregarious caterpillars which construct on trees large silken webs into which they retreat when at rest. Some of the species are very destructive to fruit trees. The most common American species is the larva of a bombycid moth (Clisiocampa Americana). Called also lackery caterpillar, and webworm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb archaic To attend to; to heed; hence, to guard; to hinder.
  • noun archaic Attention; regard, care.
  • noun archaic Intention; design.
  • noun 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.
  • noun medicine A probe for searching a wound.
  • verb medicine To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent; as, to tent a wound. Used also figuratively.
  • noun 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.
  • noun archaic The representation of a tent used as a bearing.
  • verb intransitive To go camping.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French tente, from Vulgar Latin *tendita, from feminine past participle of Latin tendere, to stretch out; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tente, from Old French, from tenter, to probe, from Latin tentāre, to feel, try; see tentative.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tenten, from tent, attention, short for attent, from Old French attente, from Vulgar Latin *attendita, from feminine past participle of Latin attendere, to wait on; see attend.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

Comments

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  • A kind of alcoholic drink (wine?).

    Usages:

    "'...Tent to begin with, and then the port with the yellow seal.'"

    "'So this is tent,' said Martin, holding his purple glass up to the light. 'It is not unlike our altar-wine at home, but rounder, fuller, more...'"

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Far Side of the World, 89 and 94 (respectively)

    February 20, 2008